Tokyo, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Japan Airlines (JAL) said Thursday that one of its flight attendants, despite her denial of drinking any alcohol before duty, failed to pass a breathalyzer test with a high level of alcohol earlier this week, Kyodo News reported Thursday.

Before boarding a flight from Narita airport to Honolulu on Monday, the 46-year-old female attendant took a test and no alcohol had been detected.

However, two other cabin crew noticed the smell of alcohol in her breath and had her take another test, which revealed 0.15 milligram of alcohol in her breath, exceeding JAL's set limit of 0.10 mg, according to the airline.

The flight attendant denied to recognize the test result, saying that she had not drunk any alcohol since Friday, JAL said, adding that she repeatedly used mouthwash during the flight.

The airline said it will continue its investigation into the matter.

JAL has been caught up in a series of drinking scandals involving its pilots.

A JAL co-pilot, who exceeded the British alcohol limit by around 10 times prior to a flight in October, was arrested in London and sentenced to 10 months in prison late last month.

The airline said after the London incident that it plans to introduce breathalyzer tests for the flight attendants as well.