Two former America West pilots were convicted on Wednesday of operating a jet full of passengers while still drunk from a night of beer drinking.

A Florida court jury convicted Thomas Cloyd, 47, and Christopher Hughes, 44, on one count each of operating a plane while intoxicated or in a reckless manner. They face punishment ranging from probation to five years in prison and are to be sentenced on July 20.

The pilots were pulled off an America West flight at Miami Airport on July 1, 2002, after a security screener reported that they smelled of alcohol.

The Airbus A319 was being towed to the runway for takeoff to Phoenix with 124 passengers and three flight attendants aboard when it was ordered back to the terminal.

"They were about five or six minutes away from flying," said Assistant State Attorney Hillah Katz, one of the prosecutors.

Police said Cloyd's blood-alcohol reading was 0.091 and Hughes' was 0.084 in tests given about three hours after they entered the cockpit. Florida law considers a vehicle operator drunk if his blood alcohol level is 0.08 or higher.

According to trial testimony, the pilots spent the evening before the flight playing pool and drinking at a Miami bar. They left the bar around 5 a.m. after running up a tab for 14 jumbo glasses of beer -- the equivalent of nearly 22 pints (10.5 litres) -- and showed up late for the 10:30 a.m. flight.

Defense attorneys said the pilots should not be convicted because they were not really operating the plane at the time in question. They said it was under control of the tug truck driver towing it to the runway.

The tug driver, who was the lone defense witness, testified that the plane's engines were off and the steering disabled but acknowledged he acted only on orders from the pilots.

America West fired Cloyd and Hughes shortly after their arrest and the Federal Aviation Administration revoked their pilots' licenses. FAA rules bar pilots from consuming alcohol for eight hours before a flight.