D.A.: Pilot flew close to airliner

D.A.: Pilot flew close to airliner

NORRISTOWN (Pa) -- The alleged drunken pilot who was forced
to land in Limerick Jan. 15 nearly collided with a police
helicopter and came very close to a commercial airliner
packed with passengers above Philadelphia, according to
authorities.

"One commercial airliner, a 747, came within 900 feet and
had to be diverted to avoid a collision. That airliner, I am
told, was fully loaded with passengers," Montgomery County
District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said, adding that
numerous commercial airliners had to be diverted from their
normal patterns to stay away from John V. Salamone’s
single-engine Piper Cherokee.

Salamone, 44, of the 900 block of Temple Road, was formally
charged Thursday with causing or risking a catastrophe,
recklessly endangering other people and driving under the
influence of alcohol or a controlled substance.

Salamone’s plane also came within a quarter-mile of the
Limerick nuclear power plant, Castor said.

Salamone, according to Castor, had a blood-alcohol content
of 0.15 percent, "with valium." That’s nearly twice the
legal 0.08-percent limit to drive a motor vehicle in
Pennsylvania. The legal blood-alcohol limit for pilots is
0.04 percent, according to Federal Aviation Administration
officials.

"This guy is blotto," Castor alleged, referring to police
reports that Salamone failed field sobriety tests, nearly
fell over, had bloodshot eyes and had an odor of alcohol on
his breath when he landed his plane in Limerick.\
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