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Two Delta attendants fail breathalyzer test before international flight
Two flight attendants for Delta Air Lines were pulled from an international flight after failing a breathalyzer test in Amsterdam on Friday.
Randomly tested by Dutch authorities before a flight to New York’s JFK International Airport, a female flight attendant reportedly showed a blood alcohol level seven times over the legal limit for crew members and a male flight attendant failed by .02, an official familiar with the situation confirmed.
The female Delta employee was fined 1,900 euros, or about $2,000, and her male colleague was fined €275, or about $290. Another flight attendant from a different airline was also fined €1,800 (around $1,900) for being 6.5 times over the limit with the trio flagged during a three-hour period in which police screened 445 pilots and flight attendants at Schiphol Airport, according to Aviation A2Z.
A spokesperson for the Atlanta-based carrier told CBS News that the incident did not affect the flight.
“Delta’s alcohol policy is among the strictest in the industry and we have zero tolerance for violation. The employees were removed from their scheduled duties and the flight departed as scheduled,” the spokesperson said.
European aviation regulations restrict alcohol consumption for aircrew, and the Netherlands specifically bans pilots and crew members from drinking within 10 hours of a flight, Aviation A2Z reported. But the European Air Safety Agency warns that adhering to a “bottle to throttle” time rule does not guarantee compliance with legal blood alcohol concentration limits.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration recommends 8 hours between drinking and flying, and that employees be removed from their duties if their blood alcohol concentration registers 0.02 or above on a required test.
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CBS News
Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, targeted in possible Iran-backed cyberattack, sources say
Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, was recently notified that he was the target of a potential Iran-backed cyberattack, two people familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.
The apparent hackers targeted his communications, but whether they succeeded and how much access they had to the data is still being investigated, the people said.
The FBI declined to comment. CBS News had also reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
The news of Iran’s potential targeting of Patel was first reported by Semafor.
This comes after months of warnings from the FBI and other federal agencies of Iranian cyber activity targeting Trump campaign staff leading up the 2024 presidential election. In September, Justice Department prosecutors charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps with launching a broad hacking campaign against U.S. officials, including those close to Trump.
In August, Microsoft said that Iran was increasing its efforts to influence the November election, and in one case had targeted a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack.
Trump and his allies, including members of his first administration, have been targets of Iran since the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, and U.S. officials continued to warn of those cyberattack campaigns in recent months.
The 44-year-old Patel served in intelligence and defense roles in Trump’s first term, including chief of staff to the secretary of defense. He was also designated by Trump to be a representative to the National Archives and Records Administration and fought a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
He is an attorney and staunch Trump loyalist who rose to prominence as an aide to former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, fighting the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
He served on Trump’s National Security Council, then as a senior adviser to acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, and later as chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.
President-elect Donald Trump is considering selecting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his pick for defense secretary to potentially replace embattled Fox News host Pete Hegseth, two sources familiar with the transition told CBS News Tuesday night.
This comes after Trump and DeSantis attended a memorial for fallen law enforcement officers Tuesday in Florida.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report this story.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
