Breath Tests Mandatory For Indian Pilots

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The Hindu is reporting that the government is finished implementing a program in which all airline pilots in the country must submit to a pre-board breathalyzer test. The newspaper says the Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced last week that 100 percent of crews now undergo the pre-flight check. The program was initiated last year in light of random checks conducted in 2009 and 2010 that nabbed 57 “tipsy” pilots trying to go to work.

All of India’s major airlines were represented in the drunk-pilot total. Of the 57, 11 were fired and the remainder were suspended for varying lengths of time. The new rules spell out penalties more precisely. Anyone blowing positive gets a three-month suspension and repeat offenders get five years.

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