Pilot Rushed To Hospital With 62 Bags Of Cocaine In His Stomach [Report]

A Texas commercial pilot called 911 for medical help when one of the bags of cocaine he was allegedly smuggling burst inside his stomach sometime during a plane flight.

Perhaps this alleged drug-smuggling incident gives a new definition to the “mile-high club.”

The Dallas-area pilot, who was a passenger on a flight from Colombia to Houston on Saturday, allegedly swallowed 62 bags or balloons of cocaine before he got on the plane.

According to one explanation, “That passenger, according to a source, before he boarded that plane in South America took 250 grams of cocaine, a bunch of rubber gloves, cut off the fingers, poured in the coke, and swallowed it. And he did it 62 times. The trouble is one of those coke fingers busted…”

Feeling ill, he himself dialed 911 from a Houston hotel shortly after the jet landed at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport and was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment where he underwent emergency surgery.

The Colombia-to-Houston flight takes about five hours.

According to Click2Houston, the suspect, age 49, “is a FAA licensed commercial pilot with certification to fly a 737. It remains unclear whether his security clearances could make it easier to smuggle drugs.”

Authorities have charged the pilot with felony possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. Bail was set at $500,000, and he apparently is still in custody with a police guard outside his hospital room while he recovers.

The airline on which the alleged coke-smuggling pilot was flying from South America and which air carrier, if any, he works for have yet to be disclosed. One report indicates that he works for a small regional carrier.

[image via Shutterstock]