A United Airlines pilot was pulled from his plane yesterday on charges that he was about to fly to Chicago while drunk.
After he failed a breathalyzer test, he was arrested and subsequently released on bond. United did not release the name of the pilot, but did confirm an employee was “removed from service”.
The flight in question was United 949, scheduled to depart London Heathrow at 12:05pm All 124 passengers had to be moved to other flights as no replacement pilot was available. The passengers were told that the pilot was “sick”.
The airline did not release any more information about the incident. The British press reported his age as 51.
Sadly, drunk pilots are not all that uncommon. When we recently compiled some of the worst incidents involving the flight crew, four of the ten involved booze in the flight deck.