The pilot was escorted from the plane, He has been charged with having care and control of an aircraft while being impaired, and having a blood-alcohol level exceeding .08 while in care and control of an aircraft. Police claim the pilot had three-times the legal blood-alcohol level.
"Because he has as much alcohol in his system as he does, they're going to wait for him to sober up somewhat before he goes before a justice of the peace," Stacey said.
Police said the pilot's name will be released after he has appeared in court.
Sunwing spokeswoman Janine Massey praised the rest of the crew for handling what she called a "very unfortunate matter".
"We can confirm that the gate agents, first officer and crew of Sunwing flight 595, departing from Calgary and destined for Cancun, determined that the captain was unfit to fly and reported this accordingly," Massey stated.
Sunwing, a low cost Canadian carrier, said the plane took off a short time later with another captain.
"We are very apologetic for any upset that this has caused and would like to assure our customers that safety remains our utmost priority," Massey said.
Stacey said Transport Canada has been contacted and the suspect could face additional charges.
"It had all the potential for a disaster but the likelihood of a pilot on a major airline like this actually being able to take off when they're impaired like that is pretty slim, because there's a lot of checks and balances. There's the other flight crew and there's gate crew and they're all about safety," he said.
The news comes just days after an Indonesian pilot resigned after allegedly flying drunk.
