DGCA proposes testing of aviation personnel for psychoactive substances

After subjecting aviation crew to breathalyser tests, civil aviation regulator DGCA has now proposed screening for drug abuse, the first such initiative to ensure safe air travel.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has proposed extensive tests for flight crew members and air traffic controllers to check abuse of psychoactive substances such as cannabis, opioids and their various variants with a penalty of cancellation of license for repeat offenders.

Persons turning positive for substance abuse in the screening tests would be taken off sensitive duties until the results of the confirmation tests are received. Persons testing positive in the confirmatory tests will be sent for rehabilitation and be allowed to rejoin duties after clearances from medical officers.

“If after return to safety-sensitive duties, a person again tests positive in the confirmatory test, the license of the involved person will be cancelled,” Director General Civil Aviation Arun Kumar said.

The first phase of such tests will be carried out at six airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad – where random screening would be done on 10% employees of the flight crew and air traffic controllers in a period of one year.

“Besides random tests by the DGCA, an organisation employing pilots and Air traffic controllers will subject their employees to test for the consumption of psychoactive substance on following occasions – before employing a person; post-accident; random testing by the organisation and follow-up tests of confirmed cases,” the aviation regulator said.

The tests for psychoactive substance abuse is in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation policy and procedures which has already been prescribed by other leading aviation agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration of the US and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, the DGCA said.

After alcohol, cannabis and opioids are the next commonly used psychoactive substances in India. About 3.1 crore individuals had used any cannabis product within the previous year and 21 lakh suffer from cannabis dependence, the DGCA said.

Nearly 2.26 crore individuals use opioids which includes opium and its various variants, heroin, smack or brown sugar and a variety of pharmaceutical opioids.