An American Airlines pilot was arrested at a British airport yesterday on suspicion of being drunk – right before he was scheduled to fly a packed jet across the ocean to the United States.
The pilot was arrested about 15 minutes before Flight 55 was scheduled to take off for Chicago at 10:30 a.m., according to American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner.
Manchester Police confirmed an American Airlines crew member was arrested and taken to a local police facility, where he underwent tests.
The Mail on Sunday, a British newspaper, identified him as James Elden Yates, 45, of Westerville, Ohio.
He was released on bail pending the results and is scheduled to return to the police station Tuesday.
Yates was scheduled to make the flight with two other pilots before he was arrested. The flight took off an hour and a half late and had to stop in New York at around 2 p.m. to pick up a new pilot.
Wagner said the airline had begin an internal investigation into the arrest, which he called an “isolated incident.”
With Post Wire Services