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“Mr. Gronych chose to consume an incredible amount of alcohol,” Greenwood said.

She said he arrived in Calgary shortly before 1 a.m. and was to return to the airport at 6 a.m. for a flight departing an hour later.

When Gronych failed to show, the first officer contacted Sunwing’s operation control centre, which got in touch with the pilot.

Gronych arrived at the departure gate at 7:05 a.m., five minutes after the flight was to have departed.

“At this point, the first officer had been informed by Sunwing’s customer service agent and multiple ground agents working at the gate that they had concerns Gronych was impaired by alcohol,” Greenwood said, reading from a statement of facts signed by the offender and his lawyer, Susan Karpa.

“He was slurring his words, staggering and could not walk in a straight line.”

The prosecutor said the first officer also had concerns once Gronych reached the flight deck.

“When Gronych entered the flight deck, the first officer watched as he tried to hang his jacket up on a coat hanger,” Greenwood said.

“Based on the 30 seconds it took Gronych to hang his jacket and the fact he was staggering on his feet, the first officer believed that he was impaired.”

The first officer then told the Slovak national he believed he was impaired, would not be flying the plane and would have to exit immediately.

As the first officer, whom Greenwood did not identify by name, updated the control centre on the situation, Gronych returned to the cockpit, sat in the pilot’s seat and appeared to pass out, resting his face on the window.