After release on DWI charge, FAA administrator made test flight

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Source: CNN

A day and a half after he was arrested on a drunk-driving charge, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt co-piloted a government jet to North Carolina as part of a proficiency flight, Federal Aviation Administration officials confirmed Wednesday.

The flight was planned before Babbitt's Saturday-night arrest, officials said, and took place as scheduled Monday morning.

Babbitt does not appear to have violated any FAA rules by taking the flight. Since he has not been convicted of DWI, he was under no formal obligation to report the arrest, and there is no suggestion that he violated a "bottle to throttle" rule requiring eight hours to pass between alcohol consumption and flying.

But Babbitt earned the ire of his boss -- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood -- by not notifying him of the arrest. LaHood learned of the arrest about 1 p.m. Monday after a Virginia police department published a press release announcing the arrest. Babbitt, meanwhile, was just returning from the proficiency flight.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/07/us/babbitt-pilot/index.html