Pilots hold people's lives in their hands. The establishment of strict rules on their alcohol consumption before flights is inevitable.
Given the succession of drinking scandals involving airline pilots, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has compiled new standards on alcohol checks. The new limit for pilots of under 0.09 milligrams of alcohol per liter of breath is the world's strictest.
Pilots at 25 domestic airlines will be banned from boarding flights even if a small amount of alcohol is detected by a precision detector. To prevent drinking on board, alcohol checks will also be conducted after flights. The new rules make it mandatory to conduct checks in the presence of officials from different sections, preserve test records and report drinking incidents, if any, to the ministry.
The new rules are likely to be applied from next February. To work toward preventing a recurrence of scandals, airlines must expedite preparatory arrangements.
The series of drinking scandals began with a Japan Airlines copilot who was found to have drunk a large amount of alcohol before boarding a flight. In November, a British court sentenced the copilot to 10 months in prison, saying that he was "very intoxicated." He is said to have passed a JAL breath test illegitimately and his colleagues are said to have been unaware of any abnormality in his condition.
At other Japanese airline companies, too, a series of cases have come to light in which alcohol consumption exceeding their limits has been detected among crew members and violators have been suspended from flight duties. Domestic airlines have had no unified alcohol detection procedure. It is surprising to learn that some companies did not even use detectors.
Reliable checks needed
There can be no alternative but to say that the awareness of crisis management has been low in the airline industry as a whole.
Under the current laws and ordinances, there is no criteria on alcohol consumption and checks are not mandatory. This was based on the assumed self-control and high professional ethics of pilots. The ministry has held the position that "it is desirable for standards to be applied by airlines on a voluntary basis."
It is lamentable that it has become necessary for airlines to rely on strict rules, but the new measures are needed now that carriers have lost the public's confidence. They are called on to conduct checks in a way that does not cast doubt.
That the new rule prohibiting crew members from boarding flights if even a small amount of alcohol is detected applies to only domestic airlines has caused bemusement among them. It is essential to take measures to prevent confusion being caused by such mishaps as erroneous detection.
A matter of concern in the aviation industry is that workloads will increase due to a pilot shortage. The possibility cannot be ruled out that pilots become overdependent on alcohol to relieve stress. An incident in which a female JAL cabin attendant drank alcohol during a flight has also come to light.
It is necessary to improve counseling for employees suspected of alcohol addiction and carry out the counseling promptly and properly. Airline companies must work hard to provide thorough training and health checks for their crew members.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 30, 2018)
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