My Blogs : Nuclear Issues ; Radiation Protection Issues ; My Voice

My Website : www.radsafetyinfo.com

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Breath test for alcohol – Airline pilots

 Airline pilots are routinely checked for alcohol (ethanol) content in the breath. Any BAC (breath Alcohol Content) reading above 0.08% (0.08 g in 100 g of blood) is taken as “Under the influence of alcohol” and they are not allowed to fly aircraft and putting so many lives at risk. However, there are a lot of factors that affect BAC such as body weight, fatigue and stress factors.

The public understand that many a times pilots fail this test. What happens after testing positive is anybody’s guess!

I have a few queries:

Ø  Whether due to acute shortage of senior or junior pilots, the “drunk” pilots are allowed to fly?
Ø  What are the responsibilities of the regulators in such cases?
Ø  What happens if the regulators are hand-in-glove with the operation staff?

Only way to safeguard the safety of passengers is to ensure that the regulators are beyond corruption, and provide incentives to the young Indians to take the profession of airline pilots so that at any given time we have enough number of pilots available for recruitment by airlines.