Police board Southwest Airlines plane at Savannah/Hilton Head International airport to arrest pilot for dui

A Southwest Airlines pilot was apprehended in Georgia this week, delaying a flight from Savannah/Hilton Head to Chicago Midway. The pilot was reportedly escorted from the plane shortly before it was due to fly on Wednesday morning.

Southwest Airlines pilot David Paul Allsorp, 52, of New Hampshire, was taken into custody at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) on Wednesday, January 15th, and booked into a local jail on charges of driving under the influence.

According to the police report provided to my, law enforcement arrived at the airport's boarding gate 2 at 06:00 on Wednesday morning following a complaint regarding a Southwest Airlines pilot suspected of being under the influence of alcohol.

The police officer found the pilot in the cockpit conducting preflight checks and asked him to step out onto the jetbridge, which he did without incident.

The officer then conducted a standardized field sobriety test, which indicated the need for a blood alcohol test.

The pilot declined to submit to the state-mandated blood test, which, combined with the field sobriety test results, established just cause for his detention and arrest.

The Chatham County Sheriff's Office jail records show that Allsorp was charged with Driving Under The Influence and booked with a $3,500 bond.

Allsop has reportedly been a licensed pilot since 2008 with CNN reporting that he has been flying with Southwest for 18 years.

When reached for comment by my, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines confirmed the pilot has been removed from duty:

"The Employee involved in the situation on Flight 3772 Wednesday morning from Savannah has been removed from duty.

"There's nothing more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Employees and Customers."

The FAA requires at least 8 hours "from bottle to throttle," although the specific length of time passing does not guarantee pilots are in the best shape to fly or that their blood alcohol content is below the legal level, noting:

"You may not act as a crewmember of a civil aircraft within 8 hours after the consumption of any alcoholic beverage, while under the influence of alcohol, while using any drug that affects your faculties in any way contrary to safety, or while having an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or greater in a blood or breath specimen."

For reference, the requirements for pilots are twice as strict as the 0.08% requirement for driving a car in the State of Georgia.

The Southwest Airlines Flight 3772 to Chicago Midway (MDW) was significantly delayed as a result. According to data from Flightradar24, the Boeing 737 registered N467WN finally left Savannah at 11:06, five hours after its original estimated departure time. It landed in Chicago two hours later at 12:01 local time.

A Southwest Airlines spokesperson confirmed that passengers with connections were rebooked on other flights or otherwise rerouted:

Southwest Airlines began serving Coastal Georgia and South Carolina’s Low Country on March 11th, 2021, with direct flights to five of its busiest markets: Baltimore/Washington (BWI), Chicago-Midway (MDW), Nashville (BNA), Houston-Hobby (HOU), and Dallas-Love Field (DAL)

Airport officials had reportedly been waiting and working toward bringing Southwest Airlines to the airport for over 20 years by the time the airline finally began service.

Today, the airline still flies to the five original destinations and will resume flights to Denver (DEN) and Saint Louis (STL) in March.