I *know* you all remember this incident. You're not going to believe what happened in court!
Judge: Pilot not too drunk to fly plane
Jason McKee , Special to the Local News 03/03/2004
LIMERICK -- John Salamone might have been too drunk to drive a car when he swooped down to within 100 feet of a busy runway at the Philadelphia International Airport, but he wasn’t too drunk to fly an airplane, a district justice ruled Tuesday.
Salamone, of North Coventry, was halfway through a joyride when he penetrated restricted airspace at the airport Jan. 15, according to prosecutors. For four hours, Salamone had flown his single-engine Piper erratically between Pottstown and Atlantic City, N.J., dropping at one point to 50 feet above the Schuylkill River, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.
For three hours, nothing was done. Air traffic controllers tracked Salamone’s plane with radar as it repeatedly climbed to more than 4,000 feet, only to dive again to within several hundred feet of the ground above Valley Forge, Conshohocken and the Cobb’s Creek section of Philadelphia.
Eventually, a Philadelphia police helicopter was called in to help. The chopper, flown by Kevin Lee, attempted to contact Salamone on the radio. Salamone didn’t immediately respond. The chopper followed him to Pottstown.
"He flew over downtown Pottstown, did a 180-degree turn and went toward the cooling towers of the Limerick power plant," Lee testified. "We placed ourselves between the towers and the (Pottstown/Limerick) airport, and asked the pilot to follow us (to the runway)."
Lee escorted Salamone’s plane to the airport, where it was met by several police cars on the runway.
Limerick Police Officer Christopher Missimer said Salamone appeared intoxicated when he got out of the plane.
"His pants were unbuttoned and unzipped," Missimer said. "I detected an odor of alcohol, and he was unsteady on his feet."
Lab results indicate Salamone’s blood-alcohol level was 0.15 percent. The prescription depressant valium was also found in his system, prosecutors said.
Defense lawyer Joseph Green of West Chester didn’t argue his client was sober. Instead, Green attacked the district attorney’s interpretation of the DUI statute.
"This law was written with specific limitations," Green told the court. "The DA can’t apply it to this case just because it’s a good idea."
The law, Green argued, pertains to vehicles on the ground. Pennsylvania has separate laws for drunken boaters, but it does not have a law on the books preventing pilots from flying drunk.
"There are no aircraft rules for DUI in Pennsylvania," Green said.....(snipped)
http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11056770&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=17782&rfi=6