Germany eyes random testing of pilots
Print Edition
Germany plans legislation requiring random drug and alcohol testing of pilots, hoping to reduce the risk of a repeat of the Germanwings crash in March, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt was quoted as saying yesterday.
The plans follow the recommendation of a taskforce set up by the his ministry, after a pilot barricaded himself inside the cockpit of a plane operated by the Lufthansa unit and crashed it in the Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
Prosecutors have found evidence that the co-pilot, who had suffered severe depression and may have feared losing his job, had researched suicide methods and concealed an illness from his employer, sparking a debate on supervision and medical secrecy.
“I think it’s sensible that pilots are checked on a random basis for the consumption of alcohol, drugs and medicines,” Dobrindt told Bild am Sonntag. “Experts around the world see positive effects from this to boost operational safety in aviation.”
Dobrindt said it was vital airlines were given the responsibility to carry out the checks.
Yet Markus Wahl, a spokesman for German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit, was critical of the proposal.
“From our point of view the planned random tests are completely wrong. They ... will put an entire professional group under general suspicion,” Wahl was quoted by Bild am Sonntag as saying.
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