Russian pilot fired for attempt to fly drunk

Russia's largest air carrier Aeroflot has fired a pilot who attempted to fly a plane from the Far East city of Blagoveshchensk to Moscow while drunk, the company said on Wednesday.

Earlier the Blagoveshchensk Airport reported that the flight to Moscow the day before was delayed for 10 hours because the pilot was "not quite right." Doctors confirmed that the man was inebriated. He was replaced by another pilot who had arrived from Moscow.

"It's true that the pilot did not pass the pre-flight examination because of a blood-alcohol content [on the level of slightly inebriated]," an Aeroflot spokesperson said.