A sad waste of a life.
Nice to see CASA have the guts to take a tougth line.
Pilot was drunk when chopper crashed: ATSB - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
ATSB has found a helicopter pilot who died when his chopper crashed at Mataranka near Katherine in August last year had a blood alcohol reading of 0.245.
Cattleman, Duane Fishlock died instantly when his Robinson helicopter struck powerlines at the Mataranka sports ground and crashed. The only passenger, 20 year old Sam Webb, survived but was seriously injured.
The ATSB has found that Duane Fishlock had drunk an unknown quantity of alcohol in Katherine the night before the crash.
Several witnesses said he appeared to still be drunk in the morning.
A post mortem revealed his blood alcohol level was 0.245.
Civil Aviation regulations state that pilots must not fly within eight hours of drinking or if their ability to fly is impaired by alcohol.
CASA tightens pilot testing
Peter Gibson from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said regulations regarding alcohol consumption were tightened late last year and random testing will begin in the next couple of months.
"This effects everyone in an operational position in aviation, pilots, engineers, cabin crews, refuellers the lot and it also covers private pilots," he said.
"They'll all be subject to random testing. They'll all be subject to effectively a nil alcohol and drug blood content."
Mr Gibson from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said there's no evidence that drug and alcohol use is a big problem in the aviation industry.
"The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has contracted a leading medical organisation to carry out the random tests," he said.
"They'll be going around to airports large and small, to aviation businesses large and small doing saliva and breath tests and then analysing those to make sure that people who may be affected are taken out of aviation."
Random testing for drugs and alcohol is due to begin by May.
