A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

A&nbsp;charter copilot accused of attempting to fly while intoxicated late last week has pled not guilty to the charges in a Michigan District Court. On the morning of August 25, Sean Michael Fitzgerald, a pilot with Long Island-based Talon Air, was removed from the cockpit of a Bombardier Challenger 604 during a pre-flight check at Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City, Mich., after the flight’s captain determined there was something wrong and notified his dispatchers. According to news reports, Fitzgerald, a Florida resident, was arrested after his field-administered sobriety test showed a blood alcohol content of .30—more than seven times the FAA's legal limit of 0.04 percent blood alcohol concentration for operating an aircraft.

 


Under Michigan law, pilots are prohibited from flying or acting as crew if their blood alcohol content is 0.02 percent or more. Both the federal and state laws also prohibit flying within eight hours of consuming alcohol. “We are very proud of Captain Manny Ramirez's&nbsp;immediate action in detecting the copilot's condition and removing him from his position,” the company said in a statement. “This is yet another example of Talon&nbsp;Air's&nbsp;safety procedures working effectively on behalf of our clients and for airport safety. The individual in question has been immediately terminated.”

 


Fitzgerald was released on $5,000 bond, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for September 8. According to an FAA spokesperson, the agency is also investigating the situation.

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