NBAA: Some Countries Testing Bizav Crews For Alcohol
The alcohol consumption testing has begun in advance of an EASA requirement that takes effect in August 2020.

Business aviation pilots and cabin crews are facing a new level of scrutiny in some countries as authorities begin testing them for alcohol consumption during ramp inspections at airports, according to NBAA. After meetings last week with EASA in Cologne, Germany, NBAA learned that officials in the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan have already begun the testing while officials in Singapore started on March 31 at Changi (SIN) and Seletar (XSP) airports.


Brian Koester, NBAA senior manager of flight operations and regulations, told AIN on Wednesday that those countries are “ahead of the curve” on a new EASA requirement that takes effect in August 2020 calling for random alcohol testing of non-commercial flight and cabin crews during safety assessment of foreign aircraft (SAFA) inspections. Koester said 49 countries are signatory participants in the SAFA inspection program. “It sounds like anyone who is subject to a SAFA inspection is subject to this,” he added.  


Testing stems in part from the 2015 Germanwings accident and other incidents that pointed to alcohol, drugs and mental health issues as contributing factors, Koester said. Crews will be tested by breathalyzer, and results that are more than 0.02g of alcohol per 210 liters of breath are considered positive. In the event of a positive breathalyzer, the crewmember will be relieved of duty and tested a second time. Two positive results will result in the notification of the aircraft operator and, potentially, local law enforcement, NBAA said.


“The other thing that comes up here is sort of what happens if I just used mouthwash and there’s a false positive of some sort?” Koester explained. “Most of these countries have a 0.02 threshold…and that accounts for that use of mouthwash, or if there’s a medication that may indicate a false positive, or whatever else it may be, system error, calibration error, that sort of thing. Again, I don’t think this is going to be an issue for most folks—hopefully all folks.”


It is Koester’s understanding that the testing will be done in private. “They want to make sure it’s not conducted in view of the public, in view of the passengers,” he noted. “They don’t want to cause alarm or damage the reputation of the pilot or the air carrier, so they’re sensitive to that sort of thing.”