It seems some pilots have been overindulging this holiday season, with two reports in the past week of drunk pilots in Canada and Indonesia coming close to getting behind the controls of commercial flights.
A Canadian flight was delayed on Saturday (local time) when the captain was found drunk and passed out in the plane's cockpit before take-off.
The 37-year-old man had more than three times the legal limit of alcohol in his body about two hours after his arrest.
He was supposed to be flying a Sunwing Boeing 737 with 99 passengers and six crew members from Calgary to Mexico, but police were called when staff on the plane noticed he was behaving strangely.
"They found him slumped over in the seat,'' Calgary police spokesperson Paul Stacey told local media.
"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,'' he said.
"He won't be flying anytime soon," Mr Stacey said.
The incident was confirmed by Sunwing in a statement: "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.
"We were able to secure a new Captain and are pleased to report that our customers are now en route to their destination after experiencing a minimal delay."
It's the second incident of a drunk pilot in a week. On December 28 a pilot in Indonesia was fired after preparing to fly a Citilink plane while intoxicated.
Widely circulated videos of the incident caused alarm in Indonesia, which has had a patchy air safety record.
One appears to be CCTV footage of an unsteady pilot going through security. The other appears to be shot on a phone and shows a pilot in a cockpit trying to convince other staff members - in slurred speech - that he was able to fly.
The videos haven't been verified as authentic and Citilink did not comment directly on them, however it did confirm it was investigating a pilot who had appeared "physically unfit".
The pilot was suspended and resigned two days after the incident, according to ABC Australia.
Newshub.
