Drug and Alcohol Tests Find Few Positives

More than 18,000 drug and alcohol tests have been conducted across the aviation industry over the last six months.  These tests have been carried out under both CASA’s random testing program and by aviation organisations required to have drug and alcohol management plans.

CASA’s Director of Aviation Safety told a Senate Committee recently there have been seven confirmed positive alcohol tests and 17 confirmed positive drug tests.  Mr McCormick said for alcohol tests that is a positive rate of 0.04 per cent and for drugs a positive rate of 0.4 per cent.  Random testing is being conducted at major, regional and small aerodromes.  Testers are being deployed seven days a week, 24 hours a day, with up to 120,000 safety sensitive aviation personnel subject to testing.  Alcohol testing is conducted in a similar way to police random breath checks on the road, while drug testing is a two step screening process.  Where a positive result is indicated a sample is then sent to an accredited laboratory for confirmation.

CASA has also been auditing the drug and alcohol plans of more than 1600 aviation organisations to make sure the requirements of the drug and alcohol regulations are being met.  These organisations include air operators, maintenance and engineering organisations, aerodromes, air traffic service providers and rescue and fire fighting services.  Organisations must have plans for employees and contractors covering drug and alcohol education, testing, counselling and rehabilitation.