JetBlue pilot, suspected of being drunk, is removed from cockpit in Buffalo

Airport police officers removed a pilot from the cockpit of a JetBlue flight departing Buffalo on Wednesday morning and conducted a sobriety test that indicated blood alcohol content more than four times the federal limit for pilots, the authorities said. The pilot, James Clifton, 52, was taken into custody by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police, who notified the federal authorities and released him to JetBlue security personnel, according to the transportation authority, which operates the Buffalo airport. A spokeswoman for the transportation authority said that the pilot had not been arrested by the airport police but added that he could face federal charges and that the investigation was continuing. When Clifton went through security screening for a 6:15 a.m. flight from Buffalo Niagara International Airport to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a TSA officer noticed that he “may have been impaired,” airport officials said on Wednesday. The pilot made it into the cockpit, the statement said. He was given a portable breathalyzer test and registered blood alcohol content of 0.17. The FAA bars pilots from flying planes if they have blood alcohol content of 0.04 or higher or if they have consumed alcohol in the last eight hours. <br/>