Drug tests for Pilots

[ITCZ]

I don't argue with the fact that some colleagues do have an alcohol or other drug abuse problem.

You would be a mug to say that it is not a safety issue. But it should not be a priority. The article in the Aussie doesn't explain that the 8% is an estimation without scientific basis. The report author says so himself. It is actually an inference from other industries that pilots may have a 5% to 8% rate of alcohol and drug dependence.

The big issue for me isn't whether there is a problem, but the relative magnitude of the problem and where the problem lies in relation toother safety priorities.

Firstly the Hamilton Island accident was single engine VFR charter. The report makes recommendations for a whole industry, and talks about implementation programs in big companies.

Now you and I know that there could not be a bigger difference between the 'organisation' that runs a Cherokee Six, and the organisation that runs a Boeing or Airbus or Dash8. Worlds apart. Easy enough to target an RPT crew as they sign on, but who is going to set up a testing station at the gate to the GA apron?

I think it is analogous to a single vehicle rollover on the Tanami Highway being used as the reason for lowering speed limits in city streets. Different conditions, different road, different speeds, etc. Tenuous link at the most.

I then think about the excellent job the 4 Corners people did in looking at the industry surrounding the Lockhart River crash. We have all been there --- poor supervision, bugger all training, substandard living and working conditions, pressure to 'get the job done' with a distant and disinterested regulator and a government that tries to get a bush community strip to be financially self supporting.

The ATSB has sent CASA and DOTARS off on a tangent. There is far, far more to be achieved for flight safety in looking at ALL the GA and third level RPT situation. We have one accident that may have alcohol or marijuana use as a contributing factor in an inexperienced, poorly supervised charter pilot. He and his pax would be better served by shelving the drug and alcohol testing and doing something about the grass roots of the industry.

The boggie pilots in aussie GA already know that their supervisors and bosses push them on CAO 48, they push them on airworthiness, they push them on pay and conditions. CASA safety managment and quality systems and audits have no effect on what happens at ground zero and the working charter pilot. What moron at the ATSB or DOTARS could believe that implementation of a drug and alcohol program would filter down to the next Cherokee Six pilot?

My 2c worth.