Self Discipline
The self discipline argument is flawed byt he actions of those who get on a bender on a monday nt are still in the bar at 0200, have met brief at 0830 and are at their desk, on the hangar floor or in a cockpit that morning....it still happens and I saw it happen no less than a month ago in Oxfordshire. Drts are even worse for a complete ack of self discipline, we all know that and still see it. When you try to remonstrate down or up the CoC it goes something like, 'look we will just put him on admin duties, no he hasnt worked on any aircraft this morning but yes he is still in work, hey do you really want to push this and ruin his career. I still remeber the ginger beer refusing to man the start of an aircraft as he believed the aircrew were unfit to fly......but that was in 2007.
The fact that iaw the AFA you can now request a breath test of an individual at work then I am all in favour of it and it wont hit morale, it hasnt in the ATC world and they are to my mind the most observant of the regs regarding alcohol.
The morale argument doesnt wash, the self discipline argument doesnt wash and I for one am glad that if he/she reports for duty, reeks of alcohol he can be random breath tested then the dangerous part of what we do might become a little safer.