‘No mouthwash, tooth gel’: DGCA bars pilot, cabin crew from using alcoholic content products

DGCA New Guidelines for Pilots and Crew Members: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation barred pilots and other crew members from using substances such as mouthwash, tooth gel or any such product with alcoholic content as it could result in postive results during a breath analyser test.

The aviation regulator issued revised Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) for procedure for medical examination of aircraft personnel for alcohol consumption.

 DGCA New Guidelines for Pilots and Crew Members

• Under revised guidelines operators other than the scheduled operators, each flight crew and cabin crew of all flights originating from India shall be subjected to a pre-flight breath-analyzer examination at the first departure airport during a flight duty period.

• In case the flight crew and cabin crew are away from the base station for more than two days and operate a flight from there, the operator shall provide a facility for the conduct of their pre-flight breath-analyzer examination.

•  No crew member shall consume any drug/formulation or use any substance such as mouthwash/tooth gel or any such product which has alcoholic content. This may result in a positive breath analyser test. 

• Any crew member who is undergoing such medication shall consult the company doctor before undertaking flying assignment 

• Operators shall make available at least two serviceable breath-analyzer equipment fuel cell technology based, capable of giving accurate digital value up to three decimal places with a memory to store and recall at least the last 1000 records
  

Under the revised guidelines, DGCA has tightened the enforcement action on post-flight breath-analyzer positive/missed breath-analyzer tests. The enforcement action ranges from suspension of license for three months to cancellations of license depending upon the severity. 

- ANI

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