Pilot charged after passing out in his seat
Print Edition
CANADIAN police have charged a Sunwing Airlines pilot with impairment after he was said to have been found passed out in his seat before takeoff.
Police said the pilot had boarded the Boeing 737 with 99 passengers and six crew members on board in Calgary, Alberta, on Saturday for a flight due to make stops in Regina and Winnipeg before heading for Cancun in Mexico.
But before the plane took off, police said the gate crew as well as crew on the aircraft indicated the pilot was behaving strangely. Police were called.
“They found him slumped over in the seat. He was the captain,” a police spokesman said.
The pilot was escorted from the plane and charged with having care and control of an aircraft while impaired. Police say had three times the legal amount of alcohol in his system.
Sunwing spokeswoman Janine Massey praised the crew for handling a “very unfortunate matter.”
“We can confirm that shortly before 7am local time, the gate agents, first officer and crew of Sunwing flight 595, departing from Calgary and destined for Cancun, determined that the captain was unfit to fly and reported this accordingly,” Massey said.
“We are very apologetic for any upset that this has caused and would like to assure our customers that safety remains our utmost priority.”
The plane took off a short time later with another captain.
Transport Canada spokesman Dan Dugas said it was a criminal offense for flight crew members to be working within eight hours of consuming alcohol.
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