Pilot Arrested, Accused Of Flying Drunk

So imagine a big ol' TSA dude walking up to your cockpit window, knocking on it with his flashlight and saying, "Son, you in a whole lotta trouble." That sort of imagery could very well have been going through the mind of 44-year old Vincent Salamone of Pottstown (PA) Thursday evening after he landed his Piper Cherokee.

Salamone, president of a Pottstown concrete company, is accused of flying his 1967 Cherokee (file photo of type, below) while drunk. And it was apparently some kind of wild ride.

Salamone took off from Pottstown at about 6:45 pm EST Thursday night, according to the FAA. At one point during his flight, Peters says Salamone entered the Class B airspace surrounding Philadelphia International Airport -- without a clearance.

Perhaps ATC believed Salamone was in trouble. Even though he was, for all intents, NORDO, controllers cleared him to land at Philadelphia. Peter says Salamone didn't answer the radio.

"Normally if you are piloting out, all you do is you call us and say 'I'd like to proceed in this airspace,'" Jim Peters said. "He didn't do that." Instead, Peters says Salamone simply flew out of the airspace he'd just violated.

The flight lasted a good three hours and 15 minutes. Peters says it ended when Salamone put the plane back on the ground at Pottstown, about 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

"From what they can determine, it was pretty obvious that when he landed he was pretty intoxicated," said airport manager Mike D'Aries.

Indeed, a preliminary blood alcohol test on Salamone reportedly pegged the meter at .13 percent -- above the .08 percent legal limit for operating a motor vehicle. Oddly enough, that's what he's charged with -- operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Of course, he also faces possible sanction by the FAA.

Salamone didn't return reporters' calls on Friday.

FMI: www.montcopa.org