A Southwest Airlines pilot, pulled out of a cockpit and arrested on allegations that he tried to fly while impaired, blamed nicotine pouches when police told him he smelled of alcohol, according to law enforcement video released on Thursday.
David Allsop was minutes away from going wheels up at the helm of Flight 3772 out of Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, bound for Chicago Midway, when airport police confronted him on the jet bridge at Gate 2 at about 6 a.m. on Jan. 15, according to a Chatham County Police Department report.
When asked if he’d been drinking recently, Allsop said “10 hours ago” he had had “a few beers,” police body camera footage showed.
“Define a few beers?” officer Josiah Best asked.
“A few beers,” the pilot responded.
“Define a few beers?” Best repeated.
“Like three,” the pilot said. “Light beer, Miller Lite.”
Best asked Allsop, who has turned 53 since this incident, if he’d consent to field sobriety tests and the pilot refused, saying “there’s no need.”
“I can smell an odor consistent with an alcoholic beverage,” Best responded.
That’s when Allsop took a nicotine pouch out of his mouth, dropped it, picked it up and showed it to Best and his partner, according to footage and a written report.
“Additionally, I observed that Mr. Allsop had bloodshot, watery eyes and a flushed complexion,” Best noted in his report.
Allsop eventually consented to field sobriety tests and 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,” according to Best. “Mr. Allsop swayed while holding his leg at a 45-degree angle.”
Allsop was arrested on a charge of DUI.
He “was removed from duty immediately after the alleged incident and is no longer employed by Southwest Airlines,” the airline said in a statement on Friday.
David Chaiken, Allsop’s defense lawyer, 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.”