Tipsy pilots beware, holding breath will no longer help

New Delhi: Inebriated pilots will soon have nowhere to hide. Aviation authorities detected a fatal flaw in the system being used to conduct breathalyser tests for airline crew after failing to find even a single 'high' pilot or airhostess during last Christmas and New Year. A drunk crew member could pass this test simply by holding his or her breath and not exhaling in the "alco sensor-III" machine being used till now. Since the machine would not get any air with alcoholic fumes, it would clear the crew member as sober.
After detecting this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) last week asked airlines to upgrade the breathalyzer test machine to "alco sensor-IV". The main difference in this machine is that it would show if a crew member has exhaled or not and give a result only after analysing the air sample. So, holding breath would no longer be an insurance against getting caught.
"In the past four days alone since some airlines switched over to alco sensor-IV, we have caught four high pilots. A pilot caught on Friday is a very senior person. He's a training captain in Air India and also a flight operations inspector with DGCA. His licence has been suspended for two months," said sources.
04/03/12 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Safety Feb 2012