A Delta Airlines crew member charged with being allegedly over the legal alcohol limit for flying safely has been released on bail.
Lawrence Russell Jr appeared via video link from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
The 62-year-old was granted bail having been remanded over the matter on Monday.
Sheriff Gordon Liddle imposed a bail condition that Russell not fly in UK airspace until the case had concluded.
Russell had been arrested at Edinburgh Airport at around 10am last Friday afternoon after police believed he had broken the law.
He was detained by Scottish police officers shortly before the take off of his flight which was scheduled to fly to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
The flight was cancelled and the airline said passengers were helped with their travel plans.
At the short hearing on Monday, Russell, of Georgia in the US, made no plea to a charge that he breached section 93 (1) of the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003.
The legislation states that a person “commits an offence” under the act if they perform “an aviation function” at a time when the proportion of alcohol in their breath, blood or urine exceeds “the prescribed limit”.
The second part of the legislation states that a person commits an offence if they carry out an “activity which is ancillary to an aviation function” at a time when they are over the limit.
The act sets the limit at 20 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood for those activities carried out by aircrew and air traffic controllers.
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