India aviation ministry considering mandatory drug tests for pilots
ir India recently ordered mandatory dope tests for all its pilots amid a row over a captain of its Phuket-Delhi flight testing positive for marijuana
The Indian aviation ministry is considering mandatory random dope tests for all pilots at least once a year, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said today.
Air India recently ordered mandatory dope tests for all its pilots amid a row over a captain of its Phuket-Delhi flight testing positive for marijuana.
The current rules in India require dope testing of 10% of the overall pilot network, but the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is examining whether testing can be expanded to cover every pilot at a random time during the year.
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"There are multiple ways of approaching this dope test. Right now, the rule says 10% across the overall pilot network. The DGCA is engaging and one of the opinions from our side is that everyone has to go through it in the year at a random time," Naidu told reporters in New Delhi.
The minister added the government would need to balance aviation safety with the operational impact of implementing 100% testing.
"We have to see how all the stakeholders are going to respond to this because one is the safety aspect of it and the second thing is the operational impact, which also has to be taken into consideration," he said.
Naidu also said the DGCA is holding consultations with stakeholders on existing regulations concerning substance use and ways to strengthen the policy.
"More importantly, in terms of substance use and everything, the DGCA is also having stakeholder consultations right now on what the regulation says today and how we ensure there is a strict policy around this in the future as well. So, this consultation is going on right now," he said.
