‘STAGGERING’

Drunk Pilot Arrested as He Prepared to Fly 267 Passengers

The flight from Paris to Washington, D.C. was canceled.

A 63-year-old captain for United Airlines was arrested after showing up drunk for a flight from Paris to Washington, D.C. on Sunday, One Mile at a Time reported. Airport officials said they noticed the man was “showing signs of obvious drunkenness” as “he was staggering slightly, his eyes were glassy, and his mouth pasty.” His blood alcohol level was then measured at nearly 0.06, three times the legal pilot limit of 0.02, and the flight was canceled, according to the report. The captain claimed he had only had two glasses of wine the night prior, but following his arrest, a judge called out his version of the story. “There could have been a plane crash, you put 267 passengers at risk,” the judge said at a court hearing. He now faces a six-month suspended sentence, a roughly $5,000 fine, and a one-year suspension of his pilot’s license in the European union.