Hasselhoff says illness not drunkeness led to missed flight

David Hasselhoff

LOS ANGELES - David Hasselhoff missed a flight out of Heathrow yesterday under circumstances that caused witnesses to tell tabloids he was drunk, but which his US representative explained as mere illness.

"Mr. Hasselhoff became ill at Heathrow airport yesterday and requested to be put on a later flight," his publicist Judy Katz said in a statement.

Katz said the actor, 54, a one-time star of TV's Baywatch who is currently a judge on America's Got Talent, had been given new medications for his recently injured hand that caused him to get sick.

But passengers on the British Airways flight and people in the terminal told The Sun a different story. The tabloid wrote that Hasselhoff showed up for the early morning flight "reeking of booze" and added that he "downed bottled beer and whisky chasers."

"Passengers saw him pick up a shop manageress, stagger around and mumble to people," The Sun wrote.

British Airways did not confirm the passenger involved was Hasselhoff.

"A male passenger was denied boarding to flight BA279 Heathrow to Los Angeles as he was deemed to be unfit to travel," a British Airways spokesman told Reuters. "He was reassessed by staff and was accepted for travel on a later flight."

Hasselhoff will appear live on the NBC's contest programme America's Got Talent today, Katz said.

- REUTERS