The DGCA, the aviation industry’s governing body, announced on Friday that a well-known airline’s pilot has been demoted from flying after failing a dop test at the Delhi airport. The law requiring testing of flight crew and air traffic controllers for psychoactive substances went into effect in January of this year, and this is the fourth incident in which an airline pilot was discovered to be positive.
Amphetamines and stimulants of the amphetamine class, opiates, and their metabolites, cannabis (marijuana) in the form of THC, cocaine, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines are among the drugs that will be tested for. Three airline pilots tested positive for psychotropic drugs in recent weeks. Also recently in Delhi, an air traffic controller failed a drug test.
“The helicopter descended below the desired flight path during approach for landing on the helideck. This was also brought to the notice of the pilot by the first officer (co-pilot). The pilot took corrective action, however in the process, the horizontal stabilizer of the helicopter hit the edge of the helideck,” a DGCA official said. “The pilot exceeded the maximum take-off weight and maximum landing weight of the helicopter during the operation of incident flight thud violating norms,” he added.
The law, which went into force on January 31, 2022, requires that randomly chosen pilots and air traffic controllers provide urine samples.
The test is conducted post-flight or at any point throughout the duty period, and the urine samples are collected at the designated secure facility provided by the airline as the collecting location.
Pilots who test positive for the first time are referred to a specialist physician, counsellor, or de-addiction facility and are then permitted to resume their active activities after being subjected to further testing for the use of psychoactive substances.
The licence of anyone who fails the test a second time will be suspended for three years. Those who fail three times will permanently lose their licence. Another event involves the DGCA suspending a Mumbai-based helicopter pilot’s licence for six months. The pilot was involved in an incident in, according to DGCA.
