Boozy Flyboy Grounded





(picked a bad week to stop sniffing glue)

A Virgin Airlines pilot was jailed Saturday, charged with being too inebriated to operate a giant metal bird full of 400 passengers travelling from Washington DC to London.

The airline said Richard George Harwell, 55, an American living in England, had a spotless record during 14 years as a Virgin pilot.

``He was suspended with immediate effect pending an internal investigation,'' said John Riordan, a Virgin Atlantic spokesman.

Police at Washington Dulles International Airport in suburban Virginia seized Harwell aboard Virgin Atlantic Flight 22 on Friday night after being summoned by the Transportation Security Administration, whose screeners had detected alcohol on Harwell's breath, said Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

He was interrogated at the airport, arrested and charged under Virginia law with operating an aircraft while under the influence of an intoxicating drug or alcohol and jailed at the Loudoun County Detention Center, Hamilton said. She said Harwell will be arraigned at a bail hearing Monday on the charge punishable by as much as five years in prison and a $500 fine.

Riordan said the Boeing 747-400 was to leave on the flight to London's Heathrow Airport Saturday night after a 23-hour delay. Its 383 passengers were put up in area hotels, Riordan said.

Peter Buck, Ian Brown and Courtney Love were unavailable for comment.



Posted: Sat - December 20, 2003 at 04:17 PM      

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