A new report has found that a Southwest Airlines pilot was recently removed from a cockpit for a Wednesday flight from Georgia to Chicago and booked on a DUI charge.
The report comes from CBS News, which spoke with a source familiar with the incident and named David Paul Allsop as the pilot who was allegedly under the influence while in the cockpit.
The report shared that Allsop allegedly smelled of alcohol and may have shown other signs of impairment before he was removed from the flight by airport police in Savannah.
“The Employee has been removed from duty,” a Southwest Airlines spokesperson shared with the outlet. “Customers were accommodated on other flights, and we apologize for the disruption to their travel plans. There’s nothing more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Employees and Customers.”
The flight, Flight 3772 to Chicago’s Midway Airport, eventually took off without Allsop, who had his bail set at $3,500.Jail records show he has been released on bond.
Regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration “prohibit pilots from using alcohol while on duty or from flying, or attempting to fly, an aircraft within 8 hours of consuming alcohol or if they have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.04% or greater.”
Law enforcement officials have not shared anything regarding Allsop’s breath or blood alcohol concentration.
However, the FAA shares that any factor that can impair a pilot’s ability to do their job can be an “invitation for disaster.”
“The use of alcohol is a significant self-imposed stress factor that should be eliminated from the cockpit. The ability to do so is strictly within the pilot’s control,” the FAA says.