David Allsop allegedly had bloodshot, watery eyes and smelled of alcohol when he was removed from a Southwest flight to Chicago and arrested for DUI moments before takeoff
Authorities have released bodycam footage showing the dramatic moment a Southwest Airlines pilot was escorted from his cockpit by police moments before takeoff after allegedly reporting for duty under the influence of alcohol.
The footage, which has only recently been made public, shows the officer confronting the pilot during pre-flight checks for light 3772 to Savannah to Chicago in January, after a TSA screener reported smelling alcohol. The pilot, identified as David Paul Allsop, was arrested for a DUI in January at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Georgia.
In the footage, officer Josiah Best can be heard asking Allsop when he last had something to drink. “Last night,” he responds. “About how many hours ago,” the officer pressed. It comes as an airline pilot shares the ‘three-word lie’ they tell travelers to keep them happy.
“About 10 hours ago at least,” the pilot answered. Allsop said he’d had “a few beers”. When asked several times to define how many, he said three.
Officers asked Allsop to complete a series of field sobriety tests, which he initially resisted, telling police there was no need. However, the officer claimed he could “smell an odour consistent with an alcoholic beverage”.
Allsop claimed the smell was a Rogues nicotine pouch. He eventually agreed to the sobriety tests and carried them out on the jetway.
He struggled to follow the tip of a moving pen and to stand on one leg, police said. “It is noteworthy that Mr. Allsop failed to follow the tip of my pen with his eyes as instructed; instead he moved his head and neck during the test,” Best wrote in his report. “Mr. Allsop swayed while holding his leg at a 45-degree angle.”
“Additionally, I observed that Mr. Allsop had bloodshot, watery eyes and a flushed complexion,” Best noted.
Allsop was promptly taken into custody, handcuffed, and escorted out of the airport before being placed in the back of a patrol car and driven away for further questioning, while passengers were held back in the terminal.
The incident forced a lengthy delay while a replacement pilot was brought in, but the flight eventually departed later the same day. Allsop was later released on bond, and the case remains under review by federal aviation authorities.
Allsop’s defense lawyer David Chaiken, insisted that the video footage shows no evidence of his client being impaired. “The recently released bodycam video confirms what should be obvious to anyone who watches it Captain Allsop committed no crime,” Chaiken said in a statement on Friday.
“Experts who have reviewed the video have concluded that the tests that led to his arrest were not performed correctly and that the proper procedures were not followed,” he added.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Allsop had been with Southwest Airlines for nearly two decades. Before joining the carrier, he served in the U.S. Air Force, beginning his career in 1998 with the 50th Airlift Squadron.
Southwest Airlines confirmed the incident, saying the airline has a zero tolerance policy for alcohol use by crew members. The FAA also enforces a strict bottle-to-throttle rule, barring pilots from drinking within eight hours of a flight and setting a blood alcohol limit of just 0.04%.
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