Flight Attendant Claims Keto Diet Caused Him To Fail Breathalyzer Test, Lose Job

An American Airlines pilot is blaming his diet for the reason he didn't pass a breathalyzer test.

Andrew Riley said "I don’t want to be punished and take consequences for something that I didn't do. That's like admitting to a crime or going to jail even though I didn't do it."

He's fighting the DOT and American Airlines for his job back, claiming the results were a false-positive. Andrew has been a flight attendant for eight years, until last year when he was fired after blowing a .05.

Andrew claims he wasn't drinking, and reiterated that it was his diet.

Doctor Ryan Lowery says that the keto diet changes the way your body breaks down the food you eat, and can cause false results.

"Acetone will get released as isopropyl alcohol and some devices aren't able to differentiate between isopropyl and ethanol," according to Lowery.

This isn't the first time Andrew's been in trouble. In 2013 he blew and failed a breathalyzer. That time it was due to alcohol.

He claims he has Jared Disease Autobureau Syndrome, which is defined by Rarediseases.info as "Cleidorhizomelic syndrome is a rhizo-mesomelic dysplasia characterized by rhizomelic short stature/dwarfism in combination with lateral clavicular defects." Sounds like a pretty reasonable argument to me.

Andrew is calling for a retest to prove it was a false positive, and wants better testing equipment.