A pilot who was drunk in the cockpit has been arrested shortly before take-off in Canada.

Police said the pilot boarded the Boeing 737 with 99 passengers and six crew members in Calgary, Alberta, for a flight that was scheduled to make stops in Regina, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, Manitoba, before continuing on to Cancun, Mexico.

Two hours after his arrest, the 37-year-old man was found to have more than three times the legal limit of alcohol in his body.

Airline staff noticed the pilot behaving strangely, and then he passed out. They alerted the authorities and the man was escorted from the cockpit.

According to BBC World News service the Calgary police have named him as Miroslav Gronych, 37, a Slovak national.

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