The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered that no aircraft personnel, including the cabin crew, pilots and maintenance should take any alcoholic beverage within 12 hours of the commencement of the flight and asked all airlines to have doctors or emergency medical technicians for pre-flight breath analyser tests to check blood alcohol levels and to ensure compliance.
To conduct post-flight breath analyser examination, the DGCA stated to carry out in the aircraft after its arrival. The level of blood alcohol compatible with safe flying is ‘Zero’, which is also recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
For all scheduled operators, each flight crew member and cabin crew member shall be subjected to pre-flight breath-analyzer examination at first departure airport. If a crew member operates a flight without undergoing the pre-flight breathanalyzer examination, the Chief of Operations of the concerned airline shall ensure that the involved crew member is off-rostered at the first point of landing and same is reported to DGCA as per the CAR provisions, said the DGCA.
Similarly, for all scheduled flights originating from destinations outside India, post-flight breath-analyzer examination of each flight crew and cabin crew shall be carried out at first port of landing in India. As per the new norms, all the breath-analyser examination positive/missed cases shall have to be reported within 24 hours
In addition, DGCA has also directed that if a crew member is detected positive for alcohol consumption, the medical officer on duty shall provide the prescribed performa for the crew to submit a declaration whether the second test is to be dome on the same equipment or alternate equipment. Under rules, if the breath analyzer examination result is positive, a repeat test is to be carried out within 20-25 minutes. As per the previous CAR (civil aviation requirement), the time between first and second test was around 15 minutes.
The DGCA order said two ounces of whiskey raise the alcohol level to 50 mg. The amount of alcohol in a can of beer is approx. the same as in a single mixed drink. “Wine, champagne, ale and other alcoholic beverages have same effects as liquor, though the concentration of alcohol varies from one beverage to the other,” it added.
“Consumption of alcohol results in significant deterioration of psychomotor performance and decreases the amount of mental capacity available to deal with many essential tasks involved in the conduct of the safe flight. Should an emergency occur in-flight, the crew member under the influence of alcohol is not capable of dealing with the problem,” DGCA said.
Alcohol causes hypoxia and reduces an individual’s tolerance with increase in altitude and disturbs the sensor-motor, visual and cortical reaction, resulting in significant deterioration of psychomotor performance and decreasing the amount of mental capacity available to deal with many essential tasks involved in the conduct of safe flight. It is known that a low alcohol blood level between 30 mg% to 50 mg% disturbs the sensor-motor, visual and cortical reaction.
“…When the blood alcohol levels are zero in the body, there could be some effect of hangover, which is mainly due to congeners. These congeners may take 15 to 18 hours to get dissipated and may produce ill effects for up to 36 hours depending upon the amount of alcohol consumed. Even 12 hours after a bout of drink, when blood alcohol level remains zero, there is a decrement in task performance. Alcohol present in the body even in small quantities jeopardises flight safety on several counts and is likely to adversely affect an aviator well into the hangover period,” it said.
