A Southwest Airlines pilot suspected of being drunk was removed from the cockpit and arrested just before takeoff Wednesday at a Georgia airport, according to airline officials and authorities in the state.
David Paul Allsop, 52, of Bedford, New Hampshire, faces a driving under the influence charge following his arrest at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, according to records from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.
Allsop’s bail was set at $3,500 and he has bonded out of jail, sheriff’s office records show.
Allsop has not appeared in court, according to a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. An arraignment hearing will be scheduled, the spokesperson said.
CNN has reached out to Allsop and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association for comment.
“We’re aware of a situation involving an employee on Flight 3772 Wednesday morning from Savannah,” a Southwest spokesperson told CNN in a statement on Thursday. Allsop has been “removed from duty,” the spokesperson added.
“Customers were accommodated on other flights and we apologize for the disruption to their travel plans,” the statement said. “There’s nothing more important to Southwest than the safety of our employees and customers.”
The report documenting Allsop’s arrest says police were dispatched at around 6 a.m. following a complaint regarding a pilot suspected of being under the influence of alcohol “during crew member check-in.”
The responding officer said he identified the pilot as Allsop, who was sitting in the cockpit and performing pre-flight checks moments before he was asked to step onto the jet bridge, the report said.
The officer “detected a strong odor of what seemed to be alcohol” and asked the pilot when he had his last drink, the report said.
Allsop responded “last night,” and the officer inquired as to how much. “A few light beers,” the pilot said, according to the incident report.
The officer described Allsop as having “bloodshot, watery eyes and a flushed complexion,” the report said.
Allsop failed a field sobriety test on the jet bridge and, when asked by the officer if he would consent to a state-mandated blood test, he declined, according to the report.
Federal regulations prohibit pilots from consuming alcohol within eight hours of flying or attempting to fly an aircraft, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The same rule applies if the pilot has a blood alcohol concentration of 0.04 or greater, FAA regulations say.
In 2023, eight pilots were found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.04 or greater out of more than 17,600 pilots tested for alcohol consumption, according to the FAA.
The arrested pilot is a captain based at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Maryland and has been with the company for 18 years, an airline source told CNN.
Southwest Flight 3772 was scheduled to depart Savannah around 6 a.m. for Chicago’s Midway Airport but was delayed by nearly five hours, according to FlightAware.
Travelers were getting ready for takeoff when police boarded the aircraft, Southwest passenger Robert Newmerch told CNN affiliate WTOC on Wednesday.
An officer “went into the cockpit,” Newmerch said. The officer walked out of the plane but came back a few minutes later “and the pilot left with him,” He added. The incident left Newmerch feeling unsettled, he said.
“To see that and know that that’s why I did not fly to Midway this morning, it definitely left a little odd feeling in my stomach,” Newmerch said.
CNN’s David Williams contributed to this report.
