US & Canada

Drunk pilot arrested in Canadian cockpit before take-off

Sunwing Airlines Boeing Image copyright Mark King/Sunwing Airlines

A pilot who was drunk in the cockpit has been arrested shortly before take-off in Canada.

Two hours after his arrest, the 37-year-old man was found to have more than three times the legal limit of alcohol in his body.

His plane, part of the Sunwing budget airline, later left Calgary for Cancun, Mexico, with a different pilot. There were more than 100 people on board.

The incident happened at 07:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Saturday.

Airline staff noticed the pilot behaving strangely, and then he passed out. They alerted the authorities and the man was escorted from the cockpit.

He has now been charged with being in charge of an aircraft while being impaired.

Calgary police have named him as Miroslav Gronych, 37, a Slovak national.

Police spokesman Paul Stacey said: "It had all the potential for a disaster but I'll tell you this much - the likelihood of a pilot on a major airline like this actually being able to take off when they're impaired like that is pretty slim, because there's a lot of checks and balances.


"So, I'm not surprised that he got caught before (the plane) left the terminal."

But Mr Stacey said: "He won't be flying anytime soon."

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