Frontier Airlines Pilot Accused Of Being Drunk, Flight Delayed By Several Hours

A Frontier Airlines flight from Chicago, Illinois, to Islip, New York, was delayed for over five hours after a passenger accused one of the pilots of being drunk.

Frontier flight 1194 which was supposed to take off from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport at 6:45 p.m. local time (7:45 p.m. EDT) was still grounded as of midnight due to multiple reasons, one of which was an accusation against the pilot of drinking at the bar before duty.

Twitter user Catarina Duguay, who was one of the frustrated passengers waiting to board the flight, provided a stream of updates on her social media page as she waited at the airport.

She wrote that the delay started when airlines and airport officials had some maintenance issue. “Love @FlyFrontier casually blaming @fly2ohare for our greatly extended delay, by saying they need to ‘find what they need to fix a nose tire’ because it’s ‘all packed up.’ Not sure who’s more incompetent right now,” Duguay wrote.

As the maintenance issue was getting fixed, a passenger accused one of the pilots who was supposed to fly the plane of drinking at the bar. This delayed the flight further.

“A @FlyFrontier pilot is being accused of drinking at the bar before the flight and they now have to do a drug and alcohol test. GREAT. I didn’t feel safe to begin with after 2 hours of maintenance and now we may have an intoxicated pilot,” Duguay wrote, adding that she was not impressed by the way Frontier Airlines was handling the situation.

After three hours of waiting at the airport, Duguay said they were informed their flight would be delayed again because, “apparently the @FlyFrontier flight crew has 'timed out.' So now they need to get a new crew in and are forcing to wait another 2 hours.”

“FOR THEIR OWN MISTAKE!! I’m disgusted and regret ever booking with @FlyFrontier,” she added.

Meanwhile, Duguay said the wait at the airport was made uncomfortable by the fact that it was hot and stuffy.

As they waited, Duguay said the Frontier flight captain said “we could be delayed anyway cause of weather if that makes you feel better.” At the same time, the airport officials stopped a woman from filming a video of the announcements made.

It is not clear when the passengers were able to board the plane. The International Business Times has reached out to Duguay for a comment.

In April, it was reported that a British Airways commercial pilot, Julian Monaghan, 49, was arrested on the deck of a flight from London to Mauritius, after the police suspected he was drunk on duty. After an investigation, it was found the pilot was four times over the legal alcohol level and was charged.

British Airways provided a statement to Business Insider regarding the incident, saying: "We have taken this matter extremely seriously and will continue to assist the police with their inquiries. The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority,” adding that Monaghan no longer worked for them.