Three Japan Airlines flights were delayed, some up to 18 hours, after a captain called in sick after drinking too much last week. A total of 630 passengers were affected by delays as the airline scrambled to find new pilots to operate its flights. The Japanese government is investigating the incident.
The three affected flight’s inital schedules were:
- (28 August 2025) JL793: Honolulu 14:20 departure, Nagoya 17:30 arrival (+1)
- (28 August 2025) JL71: Honolulu 16:25 departure, Haneda 19:45 arrival (+1)
- (29 August 2025) JL71: Honolulu 16:25 departure, Haneda 19:45 arrival (+1)
The captain was originally scheduled to fly flight JL793 on the 28th. This flight was delayed by two hours, as Japan Airlines opted to pull a pilot from flight JL71 later that afternoon.
Flight JL71 was then delayed by 18 hours and finally departed at 11:34 the next morning. Residual delays continued into the next day, as flight JL71 on the 29th was also delayed by 18 hours.
JL71 also faced significant delays on the 30th and 31st, but that appears to be a maintenance issue and is unrelated to the incident.
Japan Airlines is no stranger to incidents of its pilots drinking before flights. As recently as 1 December 2024, two drinking pilots caused delays on flight JL774 from Melbourne to Tokyo Narita.
In light of this, the airline had actually banned its crew from drinking while staying at overseas destinations. According to a report by the Nikkei, the pilot involved in this Honolulu incident had broken this rule “around 10 times” since the ban.
Featured image by the author.
