The Civil Aviation Ministry is looking at the possibility of carrying out psychoactive substance tests for all commercial pilots round the year on a random basis.
“There are multiple ways of approaching this dope test. Because one is the safety aspect of it, and the second thing is the operational impact, which also has to be taken into consideration, “We have to see how all the stakeholders are going to respond to this. Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, speaking to reporters in Delhi, said the existing rules provide for dope testing of 10 per cent of pilots across the overall pilot network, while the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is engaging with stakeholders on expanding the testing. Right now, the rule says 10 per cent across the overall pilot network.
DGCA is engaging, and one of the opinions from our side is that everyone has to go through it in the year at a random time,” he said. The Minister said the proposed approach would need to balance safety concerns with the operational impact on airlines. So, we are going to balance both of them,” Naidu said. He said the DGCA is also assessing the possible impact of introducing mandatory annual testing for every pilot.
