"That’s meth, I smoke it to stay awake, I’m an air traffic controller." That's what cops say 52-year-old Breen Peck told them when he was pulled over Wednesday night on Long Island for failure to signal and having illegally tinted windows, Newsday reports. Peck—who has two widely reported air-traffic mishaps under his belt—was also accused of keeping two illegal, loaded handguns in the car (a Beretta .40-caliber and Bersa Thunder .380-caliber). As for the meth, cops say they found it in his pants pocket. Arraigned the same day, Peck was hit with multiple charges and ordered held on $25,000 bond or $12,500 cash bail.
Peck was the longtime air-traffic controller behind two near plane disasters, the Washington Post reports. In one, he directed a United Airlines pilot who nearly slammed into a jet during approach at Reagan National Airport in 2010. "That was close," the pilot was overheard saying on radio. Then, in 2011, Peck apparently endangered a White House plane carrying Michelle Obama and Joe Biden by letting it approach the wake of a military cargo jet. The plane nixed its landing attempt at Andrews Air Force Base. Peck is currently employed at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control in Westbury, NY, where the FAA describes him as "in training." (More air traffic controllers stories.)
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