united airlines

Margit Lake sneaked “multiple miniature bottles” of vodka onto the plane before it took off from San Francisco for London Heathrow, and had to be taken to hospital upon arrival

A United Airlines stewardess was ten times the legal limit to fly after downing a vast quantity of vodka on a transatlantic jet.

Margit Lake, 56, sneaked “multiple miniature bottles” of the spirit onto the ten-hour flight from San Francisco to Heathrow on 17 October. She drank some and needed to be taken to hospital after the Boeing 777 landed in west London.

A court heard the Californian flight attendant had low blood pressure and paramedics “smelt alcohol on her breath.” A blood test later revealed Lake had 216 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres in her blood — more than ten times the legal limit.

Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday Lake, who had worked for United Airlines for 26 years, resigned from her job following the misdemeanour.

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The legal limit for flight attendants in the UK is 20 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood, the court was told. Wearing a black cardigan there, Lake admitted performing an aviation function when over the alcohol limit.

Ben Lansbury, defending, said Lake had been feeling “isolated”, was estranged from her family and “had been dealing with grief.” Mr Lansbury said: “She had the alcohol because she needed to calm down. It was something of a shock to her as to what happened. She deeply regrets what happened.

“Ms Lake has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous almost daily since the last hearing. She is supported by colleagues here in the UK and they sit in the back of the court.”

Magistrate Tony Delliston told her: “We are not going to commit this to the crown court. We can deal with this here. You are not going to prison. We are going to deal with this with a financial penalty.”

Lake was fined £1,461 financial penalty, a £584 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.

• It comes as a TUI flight attendant was left seriously injured following a horror fall from a plane at East Midlands Airport after the flight steps were pushed away. The woman, a senior crew member who had over 36 years of experience, was closing the aircraft’s front door when she put her left foot on the steps. Despite her best efforts to hang onto the door, she fell through the gap and to the ground, breaking multiple bones, an Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) report has revealed. The incident occurred on December 16, 2024, with the flight bound for Lanzarote being delayed after the accident. The AAIB investigation found the step removal occurred despite the aircraft door being open.

Airports in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago along with hubs across the U.S. are among the 40 that will see flights cut starting Friday due to the government shutdown, according to a list distributed to the airlines and obtained by The Associated Press.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that it would reduce air traffic by 10% across 40 “high-volume” markets to maintain travel safety as air traffic controllers exhibit signs of strain during the ongoing government shutdown.

The airports impacted cover the busiest across the U.S. — including Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Orlando, Miami, and San Francisco. In some of the biggest cities — such as New York, Houston and Chicago — multiple airports will be affected.

The FAA is imposing the flight reductions to relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who are working without pay during the government shutdown and have been increasingly calling off work.

Controllers already have missed one paycheck and are scheduled to again receive nothing next week as as the shutdown drags on and the financial pressure on them mounts.

The FAA has already been delaying flights at times when airports or its other facilities are short on controllers.

Airlines said they would try to minimize the impact on travelers. United Airlines said it would focus the cuts on smaller regional routes that use smaller planes like 737s.

Passengers should start to be notified about cancellations Thursday. The AAA recommended that travelers download their airline’s app and turn on notifications. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines both said they will offer refunds to passengers who opt not to fly — even if they purchased tickets that aren’t normally refundable.

Experts predict hundreds if not thousands of flights could be canceled. The cuts could represent as many as 1,800 flights and upwards of 268,000 seats combined, according to an estimate by aviation analytics firm Cirium.

“I’m not aware in my 35-year history in the aviation market where we’ve had a situation where we’re taking these kinds of measures,” Bedford said Wednesday. “We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns.”

Air traffic controllers have been working unpaid since the shutdown began Oct. 1. Most work mandatory overtime six days a week, leaving little time for side jobs to help cover bills and other expenses unless they call out.

Mounting staffing pressures are forcing the agency to act, Bedford said.

“We can’t ignore it,” he said, adding that even if the shutdown ends before Friday, the FAA wouldn’t automatically resume normal operations until staffing improves and stabilizes.

Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that they would meet with airline executives to figure out how to safely implement the reductions.

Major airlines, aviation unions and the broader travel industry have been urging Congress to end the shutdown, which on Wednesday became the longest on record.

The shutdown is putting unnecessary strain on the system and “forcing difficult operational decisions that disrupt travel and damage confidence in the U.S. air travel experience,” said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman in a statement.

Duffy warned on Tuesday that there could be chaos in the skies if the shutdown drags on long enough for air traffic controllers to miss their second full paycheck next week.

Duffy said some controllers can get by missing one paycheck, but not two or more. And he has said some controllers are even struggling to pay for transportation to work.

Staffing can run short both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don’t always lead to flight disruptions. Throughout October, flight delays caused by staffing problems had been largely isolated and temporary.

But the past weekend brought some of the worst staffing issues since the start of the shutdown.

From Friday to Sunday evening, at least 39 air traffic control facilities reported potential staffing limits, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans shared through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system. The figure, which is likely an undercount, is well above the average for weekends before the shutdown.

During weekends from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the average number of airport towers, regional control centers and facilities monitoring traffic at higher altitudes that announced potential staffing issues was 8.3, according to the AP analysis. But during the five weekend periods since the shutdown began, the average more than tripled to 26.2 facilities.

Funk and Yamat write for the Associated Press. AP journalist Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report.