Downers in aviation drug test protocols: Pilots oppose new narco rules

Picture this: A pilot heads to Europe for a week’s vacation and smokes marijuana, which is legal there. After resting over the weekend, she commands two flights to Delhi and back on Monday.

After her last landing at Mumbai, the airline orders her to submit her urine sample for testing for psychoactive substances. Her urine tests positive for marijuana and she is sent for a week’s rehabilitation.

A year later she revisits Amsterdam for a week but this time abstains from marijuana. She commands two flights after her return. In the next urine test, her urine throws up trace concentrations of cocaine, which she has never tried in her life, a clear case of a false positive. Her licence is suspended for three years without a chance to appeal. She cannot be employed in any capacity by any airline in that period and there is an indelible taint on her career.

This is what pilots fear will happen as the new rule issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) came into force from January 31, 2022. The rules prescribe that urine samples of random personnel be checked for usage of six psychoactive substances — marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine, opiates, barbiturates and benzo­diazepine. Apart from pilots and cabin attendants, air traffic controllers, aircraft engineers, trainee pilots and instructors will be randomly chosen by employers to undergo these tests.

At least 45 millilitres of urine will be collected that will be split into two containers. The first sample will be immediately tested. If found positive, the second sample will be subject to a “confirmatory test”. If that, too, tests positive, the employee would be “immediately removed from duty”. She will be sent to a rehabilitation centre for treatment. If she is found positive a second time, the licence will be suspended for three years. A third positive test would invoke a life ban. All results will be shared with DGCA.

Pilots described these rules as “arbitrary, unscientific and half baked”. The Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) had approached the Delhi High Court, which has issued a notice to the DGCA. The issue is likely to come up for hearing this month. “There are no limits that have been defined on the quantity of drugs in the urine sample. In case of a false positive or even a trace quantity detection, pilots do not have recourse to an appeal mechanism. This defies all principles of natural justice, right to privacy and livelihood,” said Neetika Bajaj, the advocate representing IPG in court.

DGCA did not respond officially to specific emailed questions till the time of publication.

The pilots have opposed these new rules on multiple counts. First, the rules mandate that pilots would be subject to these narcotic tests only after the flight. An IPG member said, “This essentially means that I could be high on these drugs and still complete the flight before being tested. And if I safely land the plane before testing positive, there is no question of my being impaired by any of these substances. They clearly want to save money for the airlines while throwing personnel under the bus.” A DGCA official requesting anonymity explained that post-flight testing would prevent abrupt disruptions to flight schedules and that pre-flight testing would be introduced in due course.

Second, the new rules do not prescribe any cut-off limits, with not even a decimal point or trace value of concentration allowed in the urine sample. This has worried many international pilots who say that they fly to various destinations such as the US, the Netherlands and Russia where several of the listed substances are widely used in public spaces owing to their decriminalised status. Pilots and staff exposed to such spaces in these countries may end up having trace concentrations in their own body despite never consuming it.

Further, many drugs stay in the body long after consumption. For instance, cocaine can stay in the urine for four days or even longer after consumption. Marijuana can stay in the blood for almost three weeks after first use. So even if the pilot has not consumed any of the prescribed drugs recently, she could still end up jeopardising her career. “The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority conducts saliva tests, which is much more accurate. DGCA has prescribed the urine method, which has a high chance of false positives. There is no clarification on the chain of custody of the samples, ways to prevent contamination or even deliberate swapping of samples that can be easily done to frame someone,” said a pilot with a private airline requesting anonymity.

The rules prescribe that the two containers in which urine is collected should be sterile. Pilots have said that they should be able to choose the two containers from a sealed and sterile box of many containers to avoid banned substances being planted by, say, a vengeful employer or civil aviation bureaucrat. Similarly, to ensure that no individual is targeted, multiple people should be tested under the supervision of the same medical review officer. This would eliminate chances of false positives and show possible errors in testing to ensure that no person is wrongly implicated.

“The two samples should be sent to two different labs for testing as per International Civil Aviation Organisation guidelines. Under the Aircraft Rules 1937, one is not supposed to have consumed narcotics 12 hours before the flight. This new rule contradicts that law. Clearly, it is a hurriedly drawn up document,” said Captain Amit Singh of Safety Matters Foundation.

One major concern is the lack of appellate authority or institutional recourse. While the DGCA’s rules mention punitive measures including life ban, they omit a mechanism for reviewing the test results or appealing the ban before any authority. “We have had to approach the court every time to challenge DGCA’s rules on various issues. I completely support testing for illicit drugs in the industry. But this is a shoddy way to do it” said an IPG representative.

Surprisingly, the DGCA has mandated that only 10 per cent of an airline’s staff need to be checked for psychoactive substance use in a year. In advanced aviation markets such as the US, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has set the limit at 25 per cent. Singh added, “The rule was framed by referring to the 2019 report of the ministry of social justice and empowerment that showed that two per cent of India’s population uses cannabis and opioids. There are other pressing safety issues such as pilot and crew fatigue, which may cause serious accidents that need to be urgently addressed. Indian regulators need to get their priorities right.”