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Journalism of Courage
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is in the process of finalising stricter anti-alcohol rules to tackle the growing instances of drunken pilots and cabin crew. The new draft rules categorically stipulate that crew members would have to refrain from drinking alcohol much before a flight since even 12 hours after a bout of drinking,when the blood alcohol level is virtually zero,there was a decrement in task performance,with disastrous results for flight safety.
The rules,likely to be finalised by February,would be applicable to all scheduled and non-scheduled airlines,private air taxi operators,state government aircraft as well as helicopter operations. These would not only cover pilots and cabin crew,but also engineers who conduct mandatory checks on aircraft prior to take-off.
The rules would make it mandatory for the aircraft operator to conduct pre-flight medical checks on cabin and flight crew for all aircraft operations on a daily but random basis.
Not only would a crew member failing the alcohol check be grounded for the then flight but would need clearance from the DGCA to resume flying subsequently,sources said.
