Authorities say an airline pilot who seemed to smell like alcohol was making pre-flight checks in the cockpit when police arrested him on a DUI charge.

A Southwest Airlines pilot was arrested Wednesday at a Georgia airport just before takeoff and accused of driving under the influence, according to airline officials and authorities in Georgia.

A pilot on a Southwest Airlines flight was walked off the flight by police officers and arrested for allegedly showing up for the flight intoxicated. David Paul Allsop, 52, was arrested by airport police in Savannah just before he was supposed to pilot a Southwest flight from Savannah/Hilton Head Airport in Georgia to Chicago-Midway on Wednesday morning.