Carnage Matey! ....... your previous post took the words out of my mouth
and I too suspect a journo.
Paulo says -
'For the foreseeable future alcohol will always be a bigger threat to performance than controlled drugs.'
Err, it's not the
controlled drugs that are the problem, it's the
uncontrolled ones !
Incidentally, the airline I work for tests all our ( typically in their 20’s ) new / prospective Cabin Crew for drug usage. So far about 1.7% of them have failed the selection criteria as a result having traces of 'recreational substances' ( typically Cannabis and Ecstasy ) in their blood streams.
Now given that most young people are ( supposedly ) knee deep in drugs most weekends, I find it quite heartening to find that our reality (1.7%) seems to somewhat disprove this ( or maybe it’s that the other 98.3% of those who apply to us, to be Cabin Crew, are not representative of the rest of youthful society, uhm ?! )
Aside – I would be very doubtful if pilots were anywhere near this (1.7%) figure – given the very dedication & responsibility it requires to become an airline pilot, to say nothing of the expense; indeed most junior pilots don’t get paid enough to stand their round in the pub – off duty of course - whereas us old pilots are just too stingy
, never mind the cost of bags of charlie or speed !
Jalguy wrote –
What do you have to fear from drug and alcohol testing?
I/we have nothing to fear from drug or alcohol testing but my objection is that it would appear to be testing for testing’s sake.
Tell you what, if we’re going to have testing for testings sake ( based on a
supposed level of risk ) let’s have a Dr. at the bottom of the steps to give me a pre-flight once-over ( i.e. plenty of pilots have had heart attacks at the controls ), and / or maybe there should also be a quick pre-flight sim test just in case I’ve got rusty since my last LPC/OPC ( i.e. plenty of pilots have crashed due to being rusty ), and I would also agree with what Carnage Matey! said about having an ‘alertness test’ in case I’m tired ( which is quite often, especially in the summer ) plus the 'mood-o-meter' in case I’ve had a row at home ( which is precisely what happened between the old Duch and myself last night ).
W.r.t. -
I assume you think that there is no problem?
I don’t need to
assume as your own, so called, facts bear out the reality that there is ‘no problem’ aside from which, and as has been said before, the empirical evidence does not present lots of aircraft falling from the sky at the hands of bombed pilots, does it ?!