Woman charged with DUI on airport runway

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A caterer has been charged with drunk driving after police caught her driving on the airport taxiway after almost hitting a LifeFlight helicopter.

The woman, Marie Brown Thomasson, 72, originally told police she had just drank water that night but admitted to drinking some wine while cleaning up at the event she had catered.

The incident, which happened at Tullahoma Municipal Airport on the tarmac at William Northern Field, was reported when crew members from LifeFlight maintained a vehicle had almost hit their helicopter.

“I then observed the vehicle in question driving on the taxiway beside the Vanderbilt LifeFlight hanger,” Tullahoma police reported, noting there was an odor of alcohol detected when officers approached her.

Police then questioned why she was driving on the taxiway of the airport. “She said she was there catering an event for a friend,” police reported. “She said she had just got lost trying to leave.”

Given the smell of intoxicant, police administered a field sobriety test and then took her into custody on the charge of DUI.

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