‘Drunk Driving’ Hovercraft Pilot Attempts Landing

Richard Pease a hovercraft pilot transported 36 passengers across the Solent while nearly three times the legal alcohol limit has been jailed for eight months. (pleaded guilty at a previous hearing)

A colleague had to take the controls when Richard Pease collapsed after he missed the landing pad at Ryde on the Isle of Wight on 22 June.

Newport Crown Court heard a colleague on the Freedom 90 craft noticed Pease's reaction time was slow during the crossing and that he failed to carry out a manoeuvre properly when the hovercraft came across a tanker.

When Pease was breath tested, some six hours later, he was nearly three times the legal limit.
Pease, one of Hovertravel's most experienced pilots, admitted a charge of being master of a hovercraft having consumed excess alcohol.

Sentencing Pease, who has admitted to having a past dependency on alcohol, Judge Susan Evans QC said: "It's tragic that someone of your standing and with such an impressive past career should have destroyed all of that in one day.
"It was an appalling breach of your duty.
"Your actions could have resulted in tragedy but fortunately they did not."