On This Date in Minnesota History: March 8

March 8, 1990 - After a night of heavy drinking, a Northwest Airline pilot, first officer and flight engineer “flew a Boeing 727 with 58 passengers from Fargo, N.D., to Minneapolis-St. Paul. The plane landed smoothly, but the authorities had been alerted by a bar patron who had seen the crew drinking. The three pilots were ordered to undergo sobriety tests, and all showed blood-alcohol levels higher than the Federal limit of .04 percent. Northwest dismissed the three men, the Federal Aviation Administration revoked their licenses and in August 1990 they became the first pilots convicted of flying a commercial jet while intoxicated.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/14/us/airline-gives-ex-drunken-pilot-a-second-chance.html

http://www.whatscookinnow.org/?p=676