Over 100 passengers were stranded at Stuttgart Airport in Germany after a co-pilot was found to be intoxicated a flight before was scheduled to take off, The Guardian reports.
Flight TP523 was canceled at the last minute after the co-pilot was removed in the cockpit just before takeoff. An airport employee had noticed the co-pilot “reeking of alcohol and walking unsteadily,” according to a police report.
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Airport authorities decided to keep the plane on the ground, and police entered the cockpit to find the 40-year-old man in a “highly intoxicated condition.”
Stuttgart prosecutors suspended the co-pilot’s flying license and fixed bail of €10,000 ($12,445).
The flight was scheduled to travel to Lisbon, Portugal on Friday night, March 23, and all 106 passengers were accommodated at hotels that evening, according to German news agency DPA. The airline, TAP Portugal, said that passengers would be flown to Lisbon on Monday.
In a tweet, TAP Portugal wrote that it would complete an “internal investigation process and act accordingly.”
Hello Luis. The flight TP523 from Stuttgart to Lisbon on 23 March, operated by Portugália, was canceled due to the pilot’s incapacity: TAP Air Portugal will go through an internal investigation process and act accordingly, taking the necessary and consequent measures.
— TAP Air Portugal (@tapairportugal) March 24, 2018
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