US Air chief is arrested on suspicion of DUI

PHOENIX — Doug Parker, chief executive of US Airways Group Inc., was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving just hours after his company’s $9.8-billion bid for Delta Air Lines Inc. had been rejected, police said Friday.

Parker, 45, was pulled over at 11:30 p.m. Jan. 31 after leaving a party at the FBR Open golf tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., said Sgt. Mark Clark of the Scottsdale Police Department. Parker was pulled over for driving 20 mph over the posted speed limit of 45 mph.

Results released Friday showed that Parker had a blood alcohol level of 0.096%, Clark said. The legal limit in Arizona is 0.08%.

The CEO wrote two letters to employees regarding the incident.

“You need to know how embarrassed and sorry I am about this,” Parker wrote in the first letter Thursday. “I have let down all of you and also my family, and that is something I will have to live with irrespective of the outcome.”

In the second letter, written Friday after he found out the outcome of his blood alcohol test, Parker again apologized to employees.

According to a police report, Parker told police he had three beers during a two-hour period.

The arresting officer, Ben Roberson, wrote in the report that Parker had bloodshot and watery eyes, slurred speech and alcohol on his breath. Parker refused to take a breathalyzer test, the report shows.

The officer said he conducted roadside sobriety tests and then placed Parker under arrest. He took Parker in for booking and to have blood drawn for an alcohol level test.

Before the test was given, the report shows, Parker asked to speak with a lawyer who had been a passenger in his black BMW when he was pulled over.

The lawyer told Parker over the phone to take the test, the report shows.

Parker, a husband and father of three children who lives in the posh town of Paradise Valley, Ariz., was cited on suspicion of driving under the influence and at an imprudent speed.

Shares of Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways fell $1.17 on Friday to $58.14.