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American Morning

Pilots Accused of Trying to Fly Drunk

Aired July 23, 2002 - 11:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: One of the pilots accused of trying to fly drunk reportedly ran up a big bar tab in the hours ahead of that flight.

CNN's Mark Potter is on that story today. He checks in now from Miami.

Good morning, Mark.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Well, prosecutors have released some interesting documents in the case of former America West pilot Thomas Cloyd, and copilot Christopher Hughes. They were charged -- they are charged with operating an aircraft while intoxicated. You remember that incident occurred July 1st. Both men have been fired, and their licenses have been revoked.

Now the most interesting document was the bar tab that apparently was signed by the copilot early on the morning of their arrest. It came from a place called Mr. Moes in Coconut Grove in Miami. Prosecutors believe that approximately four or five people were involved in the party that included the pilots.

Now the tab itself shows that the group ordered seven 34-ounce beers. A regular beers is 12 ounces. They ordered seven 34-ounce beers, 7, 16-ounce beers, a draft beer, one martini and one hamburger. That's the only reference to any food they ordered. The tab does not show how much each individual consumed. The receipt on the left there shows that the copilot paid $142 with the tip at about 4:00 in the morning. Now their flight on America West was scheduled for 10:30 that same morning.

And if you recall, after the men were detected by security personnel, apparently intoxicated, the flight that they were -- the plane they were taxiing down the runway was diverted and brought back to the terminal. It was an Airbus A319, with 124 passengers aboard, bound for Phoenix. The men were given breathalyzer tests, and were found to be above Florida's legal alcohol limit, which is .08.

Another document that was released by the prosecutors shows that the pilot, Thomas Cloyd, had a blood alcohol level of .091 percent, And that occurred at 12:53 that afternoon. More than two hours after the flight was scheduled to leave, the copilot's level was allegedly .084.

Now, Cloyd's lawyer would not comment today. We talked to him about it. He said he wanted to study the documents. The attorney for the copilot could not be reached.

Both men have pleaded not guilty. They are headed off for the trial process, and the lawyer for one of the men said that once the criminal proceedings are done, efforts will be made to return them to their jobs and to get their licenses back -- Leon.

HARRIS: Incredible. You know, Mark, I'm just thinking, as I watch that documentation that you just showed there, it would be very interesting to see what the signature of this man looked like on that bar tab versus what his normal signature would look like as well.

POTTER: Yes, there is a lot of evidence that will be analyzed in connection with this. The defense will be working on this, the prosecutors. There are different ways to look at this, and of course that's why they have trials, and judges and juries. But it's certainly interesting that that has been released now, and it shows, at least on the face, some interesting things.

But again, the defense will have its chance to deal with this publicly somewhere down the road when this goes to trial.

HARRIS: Understood. Mark Potter in Miami this morning, thanks, Mark. Have a good one.

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