07-16-2014, 04:05 PM
Wow, BA flight 283 - I've been on it a few times! I'm not sure he could have got drunk at an airport bar since none would have been open overnight (they close when the last flight of the night leaves and flights have to stop after midnight at Heathrow). Sounds as if he brought alcohol on board, possibly duty free (it mentions they found empty bottles in his seat area that weren't sold on the flight) or he drank his duty free he had on his connecting flight at the airport, but if he was visibly drunk at boarding he wouldn't have been allowed on the flight (boarding procedures are pretty strict for US flights from Heathrow). The captain was thinking about diverting to Iceland, so this happened quite early in the flight, and it left Heathrow relatively early in the morning, so some things are a bit odd here.