Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced that it received a stern warning from Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) regarding an inappropriate alcohol-related incident involving cabin crew members who were scheduled to operate Flight JL252 from Hiroshima to Tokyo/Haneda on May 23.
On this flight, alcohol was detected during a pre-duty test for the purser who was scheduled to be on board, and because it took time to secure a replacement, the flight departed about 40 minutes late. A subsequent investigation revealed that this purser and another cabin crew member who was assigned to the same flight had both been drinking the previous day, exceeding the limits on alcohol consumption stipulated in the company’s operations regulations. The other cabin crew member had reported being unfit for duty that day and was therefore removed from the flight.
The issues identified were threefold: (1) in order to conceal drinking in violation of company rules, the purser delayed the alcohol test, and both cabin crew members provided false reports during the company’s internal interviews; (2) the safety management system did not function properly, as repeated concerns raised by another cabin crew member on the same flight were not recognized at the organizational level, preventing a prompt decision on fitness to operate; and (3) similar alcohol-related incidents have occurred repeatedly, indicating that efforts to instill a strong safety awareness in each employee were insufficient.
JAL will compile recurrence prevention measures, including the establishment of a strict alcohol testing and monitoring framework and actions based on the expertise of external specialists, and will report these to the Civil Aviation Bureau by July 17.
As disciplinary action for executives, the president and representative director will have monthly compensation reduced by 30% for two months; the safety management supervisor and the head of the Cabin Attendants Division will have their compensation reduced by 20% for one month; and all other directors, including outside directors, as well as all executive officers, will have their compensation reduced by 10% for one month.
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This article was generated using automatic translation by GPT-4 API. The translation may not be accurate.
