The long delayed 2002 DUI case in florida started today.

If you were on that flight and it was delayed due to the crew being detained what catagory would that full under? "Mandatory Crew arRest"?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/23/cr...eut/index.html

MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Two former America West pilots charged with operating a plane full of passengers while intoxicated may have consumed alcohol and smelled of alcohol but they could still walk and see, their lawyers told a jury Monday.

Pilots Christopher Hughes and Thomas Cloyd were hauled off an Airbus 319 in Miami July 1, 2002, and charged with operating a plane under the influence of alcohol.

They were in the cockpit as the plane was being towed to the runway for takeoff from Miami International Airport on a flight to Phoenix, Arizona. But after a security screener reported the pilots were red-eyed, flush-faced and reeking of alcohol, air traffic controllers ordered the plane back to the gate.

Police said Cloyd's blood-alcohol reading was 0.091 and Hughes' was 0.084. Florida law assumes a vehicle operator, including the operator of a plane, to be drunk if the blood alcohol level is 0.08 or higher, and state authorities charged them with operating an aircraft while intoxicated.

The pair had played pool at a bar until 5 a.m. before the 10:30 a.m. flight and consumed 350 ounces of beer between them, the equivalent of nearly 22 pint glasses, after earlier sharing a bottle of wine with two flight attendants, Assistant State Attorney Deisy Rodriguez told jurors in opening statements at their trial.

Federal Aviation Administration rules bar pilots from consuming alcohol for eight hours before a flight.

She said Cloyd and Hughes acted negligently and endangered the 124 passengers and three flight attendants aboard the plane. "They had the lives of those people in their hands," Rodriguez said.

Defense attorneys said the pilots should not be convicted because they were not "operating" the plane at the time in question. The aircraft was being towed away from the gate and the driver of the tug truck had control of the aircraft, they said.

"They couldn't endanger anyone as long as they were connected to that tug," said Cloyd's attorney, Dan Foodman. "The plane is inoperable at all times that they were in that plane."

The fact that the pair had consumed alcohol the night before the flight and the fact that they smelled of alcohol did not mean they were impaired, the defense attorneys said.

"Mr. Hughes was able to see, hear, walk, talk, etcetera," attorney James Rubin said of his client.

If convicted, pilot Cloyd and co-pilot Hughes could face up to five years in prison.

America West fired them shortly after their arrest and the FAA revoked their pilots' licenses.

The trial was delayed during a dispute over whether the state or federal court had jurisdiction to try commercial pilots on criminal charges. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that state prosecutors could pursue the charges.