'Drunk' woman pilot is caught

A pilot was stopped from flying an easyJet plane moments before take-off because she was over the drink limit.

The British woman was breathalysed shortly before she was due to take the controls of an Airbus jet with 120 passengers on board.

She was stopped at the boarding gate having already checked in.

The budget airline has suspended the pilot, who earns more than ?50,000 a year. It has not yet been decided if she will be prosecuted.

The woman was detained at Berlin's Schoenefeld Airport at

6.45am on Saturday.

Her flight to Basle in Switzerland was delayed for 30 minutes while a replacement pilot was found.

EasyJet, which has only 45 women among its 1,036 pilots, said it banned its crews from drinking for ten hours before flying - longer than the eight hours stipulated by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority.

The airline said it would be ' disappointed and distressed' if the allegation was proved, adding: 'Safety is our highest priority and we pride ourselves on going above and beyond the minimum legal standards.

'Throughout our nine years of operations we have never before encountered an incident such as this.'

In recent years, there have been growing concerns about drinking among some flight crews.