You should never drive a car when you’re drunk. That, we all know. Unfortunately, we’re never told we shouldn’t fly a helicopter when we’re drunk—possibly because most of us will never have that opportunity, or possibly because it’s common sense.
But it turns out nobody told that to former Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV.
Busch was arrested for trying to fly a helicopter while intoxicated, and according to CNN, the details are about as strange as you might expect.
The events leading up to his detention began to unfold on Monday afternoon just before 1 p.m., when police responded to a report that a helicopter was landing in a parking lot “for an unknown reason,” according to a statement from the Swansea Police Department. The helicopter was already on the ground when officers arrived, and the Federal Aviation Administration was called to investigate.
It is unclear if Busch was the pilot who landed the helicopter.
Around 8 p.m., police were dispatched to the scene again after a caller said a pilot returned to the aircraft and “appeared too intoxicated to take off.”
This is just the latest in a series of legal run-ins for Busch. Among the incidents:
- He ended up not being charged after a woman was thrown to death from his car. He drove home after the incident and said he was suffering from amnesia.
- His girlfriend was mysteriously found dead at his home, and he settled for $1.75 million in a wrongful death lawsuit over an accidental drug overdose.
- He was acquitted on assault charges after a police chase.
- He pulled a gun on someone in a bank earlier this year.
This latest incident certainly won’t help Busch’s reputation.
