The jury in the case of two America West pilots accused of operating an aircraft while intoxicated lost one of its members as the trial entered its second week in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

Court opened Tuesday with Judge David Young's questioning of the only female juror, an elderly woman who was once a flight nurse, about a comment she made as she left court last Thursday for Memorial Day weekend.

"You made a comment on your way out Thursday which soured me all weekend," Young told the juror. "You said in open court, 'Don't get too drunk over the weekend.' Does that comment mean you have already made up your mind on the charges?"

The juror apologetically explained that she meant it as a gesture of goodwill toward members of the court for the holiday, but Young decided, in light of the charges, "to keep the record pure" by letting her go.

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Testimony in the former pilots' felony trial resumed afterward with the cross-examination of a police officer who performed a field sobriety test on suspicions that Capt. Thomas Cloyd and first officer Christopher Hughes were drunk.

Miami-Dade Sgt. Steve Leibowitz told jurors he performed the test around 12 p.m. on July 1, 2002, nearly 90 minutes after flight 556 from Miami to Phoenix was brought back just feet away from the gate.

Next, prosecutor Armando Hernandez, a former commercial pilot, questioned veteran pilot Capt. Joseph Chronic, also America West's vice-president of flight operations, on the definition of operating an aircraft.

Capt. Chronic testified he considered the pilots to have been operating the flight from the moment a "sterile cockpit" was ensured by closing the door.

He ran off a litany of tasks the pilots would have performed, from safety checks to inputting flight directives, before giving the command to initiate the tug vehicle, which pulls the aircraft away from the gate.

"Everything you've described so far, is that part of operating an airplane?" Hernandez asked.

"Yes," Chronic said. "It's important these systems get checked out to make sure they're operating properly and configured properly before the aircraft begins flying."

Under cross-examination, Chronic conceded that none of his knowledge of the events was first-hand.

The state's next witness testified that defendants blew a breath test above the state's legal limit of .08 when he examined them some eight hours after they stopped drinking the night before.

Security camera evidence presented earlier on in the trial showed the defendants drinking from roughly 10:30 p.m. on June 30, 2002, until around 5 a.m. at Mr. Moe's in Coconut Grove, Fla., when a bar manager testified he kicked the two out.

Miami-Dade police officer Harold Ruffner testified Cloyd's first sample, at 12:53 p.m., registered an alcohol level of .091. A second sample, blown into the machine three minutes later, registered an alcohol level of .090.

Hughes' first test, administered at 1:07 p.m., registered an alcohol level of .084; his second sample, three minutes later, registered .081.

The witness, a certified intoxilyzer administrator, also testified that in statements the defendants gave him after the tests, they said they stopped drinking around 3:30 a.m. and returned to their hotel around 4 a.m.

Previous trial evidence in the form of hotel key card records suggested that the pilots entered their room around 5:30 a.m.

He said he also detected the odor of alcohol and saw that both men's faces were flushed, leading him to believe they were still under the influence.

The state is expected to rest its case Monday.