A COMMERCIAL pilot was hauled from a plane and arrested on suspicion of attempting to fly whilst drunk moments before take-off.

Southwest Airlines pilot David Allsop, 52, of New Hampshire, was arrested at the Savannah/Hilton Head airport in Georgia and charged with driving under the influence.

Cops boarded the aircraft, pulled Allsop from the cockpit and marched him off the plane in front of stunned passengers.

Passengers were delayed for hours when the flight from Savannah to Chicago, Illinois, supposed to take off at 6:05am didn’t get in the air until 11am.

Southwest Airlines told Fox News it was looking into the incident and that Allsop has been “removed from duty”.

The company said: “We’re aware of a situation involving an Employee on Flight 3772 this morning from Savannah.

“The employee has been removed from duty.”

Allsop’s public LinkedIn profile states he has been a pilot for Southwest since 2006, and that before that he spent nine years flying squadrons in the US air force.

US law prohibits pilots from flying an aircraft with a blood alcohol level above 0.04, which is lower than the 0.08 limit for motor vehicles.

Violations of the law could result in a pilot’s licence being revoked.

It is not clear what led to the suspicion that Allsop was intoxicated when he turned up to work.

Southwest also apologies and said that passengers on the grounded plane were accommodated on other flights.

A spokesperson said: “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 police investigation in ongoing.

It is rare for pilots to be so irresponsible as to attempt to fly planes whilst drunk – but not unheard of.

A Delta Airlines pilot risked the lives of hundreds when he was found to be two-and-a-half times over the limit before he was due to fly across the Atlantic.

Lawrence Russell Jr, 63, was set to fly a Boeing 767 from Edinburgh to New York last year when he was caught with alcohol in his system.

Security staff at Edinburgh Airport searched Russell Jr’s luggage and found that he had two bottles of Jäegermeister in his bag in June 2023.

Suspicion arose when one of the bottles was spotted and found to be just “half full”, with Russell admitting he had guzzled the rest.

The police were called and Russell failed the breath test.

He later underwent blood tests at Livingston Police Station which showed that Russell had not less than 49 mg of alcohol in 100 mg of blood.

This level far exceeded the legal limit of 20mg/100ml imposed by UK law.

He was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to reporting for duty as a pilot while being impaired through alcohol.