A United Airlines pilot was taken out of the cockpit by police Sunday after a security screener at Miami International Airport smelled alcohol on his breath as he boarded a plane he was scheduled to fly to Washington D.C., according to federal officials.

The pilot was not arrested or charged because the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office determined at this point there were no grounds for a DUI charge, said Juan DelCastillo, spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police.

United representatives could not be reached for comment.

The pilot, who was the captain on Flight 1404, passed through the security checkpoint around 8:30 a.m.

According to the United Airlines website, Flight 1404's departure was delayed from 9 a.m. until 3:40 p.m.

Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman in the Federal Aviation Administration's Atlanta office, said the agency was investigating the incident.

She declined to release the pilot's name saying it was against FAA policies.

FAA regulations prohibit pilots from drinking within eight hours of a flight, Bergen said. Blood alcohol levels higher than .04 are considered over the limit for flying a plane.

It's not the first time a TSA employee at Miami International has alerted police after smelling liquor on the breath of a commercial airline pilot.

On July 1, 2002, two America West pilots were yanked by police from the cockpit of a jet bound for Phoenix with 117 passengers aboard. The jet had been rolling away from the gate when police ordered it to stop.

TSA screeners had asked the pilots to dump the cups of coffee they carried before they passed through a metal detector. The pilots refused and a tiff ensued. The smell of alcohol combined with the odd behavior caused screeners to call police.

Thomas Porter Cloyd, 47, of Peoria, Ariz, and copilot Christopher Scott Hughes, 44, of Leander, Tx., were convicted in June of operating an aircraft while drunk. Cloyd had registered a blood alcohol level of .091 and Huges had a .081.

Miami--Dade Circuit Judge David Young sentenced Cloyd to five years in prison and Hughes, his copilot, to 2 ½ years.

Herald staff writer Luisa Yanez contributed to this report.

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