by Our Foreign Staff, The Daily Telegraph, January 3, 2017
A Sunwing pilot was arrested on Saturday after being found intoxicated in a plane he was about to maneuver out of Calgary airport in western Canada.
The 37-year-old man was found drunk shortly after 7.00 am (1200 GMT) in the cockpit of the plane he was supposed to pilot to Cancun, Mexico.
Before the flight was schedule to take off, the crew and other airline staff noticed the pilot's behaving strangely before he fainted in the cockpit. They then alerted the authorities.
The pilot was subsequently escorted out of the plane and was placed in jail, police said.
"They found him slumped over in the seat. He was the captain," Calgary Sgt. Paul Stacey told a news conference.
The authorities said the pilot had more than three times the authorized amount of alcohol (0.08 percent in Canada) in his body two hours after his arrest.
The pilot was charged with being in control of an aircraft while being impaired, and faces other charges.
"Because he has as much alcohol in his system as he does, they're going to wait for him to sober up somewhat before he goes before a justice of the peace," Mr Stacey said.
Police said the pilot's name will be released after he has appeared in court.
A Sunwing spokeswoman thanked the crew for handling the "very unfortunate matter," according to local media.
The flight took off with another pilot maneuvering the Boeing 737 plane with 99 passengers and six crewmembers, including the pilot who was charged.
This article was written by Our Foreign Staff from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.