A pilot from Humble was among two United Airlines pilots who were arrested Saturday in the United Kingdom after authorities said they were suspected of being intoxicated.
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35-year-old Paul Brady Grebenc and 45-year-old Carlos Licona were arrested shortly before their transatlantic flight was scheduled to take off from Glasgow Airport.
Two pilots preparing to embark upon a flight from Scotland to the United States were arrested and detained over the weekend.
The Newark-bound flight with 141 passengers, which was due to leave Glasgow at 9am, eventually left with new crew at 6.45pm.
The Crown Office said both men had been charged with breaking Section 93 (1) of the Railway and Transport Safety Act (2003) and were released on bail.
The act stipulates that a pilot can not have a blood-alcohol level of more than.02.
“The two pilots have been removed from service and their flying duties”, United spokeswoman Erin Benson added in a statement to the news agency.
A spokesman said the safety of the company’s customers and crew is its “highest priority”.
The drink-fly limit in the United Kingdom is 20 milligrammes of alcohol per 100ml of blood – less than half the new Scottish drink-drive limit of 50mg of alcohol in every 100ml of blood.
Jean-Francois Perreault, 39, and Imran Zafar Syed, 37, were arrested on July 18 as they were about to pilot an Airbus A310 plane, which carries up to 250 passengers, for Canada’s Air Transat.
The men appeared in court Monday, but did not enter pleas, according to the report.
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At a second hearing at the same court, they were granted bail on condition they surrender their passports.
