A flight from Paris to Washington D.C. had to be canceled after a United Airlines pilot was arrested for showing up drunk, New York Post reported. The 63-year-old US pilot was set to fly from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia on Sunday with 267 passengers onboard.
However, when he arrived, security officials said the pilot was ''showing signs of obvious drunkenness,'' and ''he was staggering slightly, his eyes were glassy, and his mouth pasty.''
He was subjected to two blood alcohol tests, that revealed he had 0.59mg/l and 0.56mg/l of alcohol in his system, which is six times the limit for flight crew in France. He was arrested one hour before take-off, and the flight had to be canceled last minute.
When questioned, the pilot told the court that he had only drunk two glasses of wine the previous night. The judge however doubted his statement and stated that “there could have been a plane crash, you put 267 passengers at risk.”
At the court hearing, the pilot was given a six-month suspended prison term and handed a nearly $5,000 fine. He will likely face further professional sanctions in the US.
"The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority. We hold all our employees to the highest standards and have a strict no-tolerance policy for alcohol," a United Airlines spokesperson said in a statement.
"This employee was immediately removed from service and we are fully cooperating with local authorities," they added.
Last month, in a similar incident, a Delta Airlines flight from Edinburgh, Scotland, to New York City was canceled after the pilot showed up drunk and was later arrested.
The 61-year-old pilot was arrested at the Edinburg Airport around 10 am, just 30 minutes before the Boeing 767 was scheduled to take off. Notably, his blood alcohol level was found above the legal limit of 0.02.
