Worried over growing number of cases involving drunken pilots and cabin crew, government is finalising stricter anti-alcohol rules where aircraft operators would have to ensure that crew members stay off alcohol much before a flight.
Worried over growing number of cases involving drunken pilots and cabin crew, government is finalising stricter anti-alcohol rules where aircraft operators would have to ensure that crew members stay off alcohol much before a flight.
The new draft rules, formulated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, categorically states that even 12 hours after a bout of drinking, when blood alcohol level is virtually zero, there was a decrement in task performance which could jeopardise flight safety.
The rules, likely to be finalised by next month, would be applicable to all scheduled and non-scheduled airlines, private air taxi operators, state government aircraft as well as all helicopter operations.
These would not only cover pilots and cabin crew, but also engineers who conduct mandatory checks on aircraft prior to take off.
The rules would bind the aircraft operator to conduct pre-flight medical checks on cabin and flight crew for all aircraft operations on a daily but random basis, they said, adding that for any VIP operation, mandatory breathalyser tests would be conducted on the crew.
If a crew member tests positive during the alcohol check, he or she would not be allowed to operate the flight. Moreover, the crew member would not be rostered for further flying without the permission of the DGCA, the sources said.
Under the new rules, the crew members would have to sign an undertaking: "I confirm that I am not under the influence of alcohol", while the doctors checking them would have to put on record all details concerning the tests carried out.
Apart from air operators, personnel of the DGCA and its Air Safety Directorate would also carry out or order breath-analyser checks on any crew, the sources said.
Even when blood alcohol levels are zero, there could be some effects of hangover, mainly caused by congeners.
Alcohol, even in small quantities, jeopardise flight safety on several counts and would adversely affect an aviator well into the 'hangover' period.
"It reduces the mental capacity available to deal with many essential secondary tasks involved in a safe flight. Should an emergency arise, the crew who has had alcohol in his system, is just that much less capable of dealing with the problem," they said.
The decision to make the law more stringent was taken in view of the rising number of cases of pilots and cabin crew reporting for duty with high blood alcohol levels.
While many of them were not allowed to take the flights, there have been complaints that some of them were granted waivers, mainly on grounds of flight duty time limitations (FDTL), they said.
This meant that if the period of duty (hours) put in by a crew member, as per the FDTL, was coming to an end, they would occasionally be allowed to take a flight back to their base even if they tested positive on the alcohol test, thus flouting the rules.
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