The Air India Phuket-Delhi incident has put the spotlight on pilot drug testing, but the president of the Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPAI), Captain Sam Thomas, has cautioned against drawing conclusions from an initial non-negative screening result before confirmatory tests are completed.
Speaking on the incident, Thomas said the pilots' body has repeatedly sensitised pilots about the possibility of commonly used over-the-counter medicines and supplements triggering non-negative results in post-flight drug screening.
According to Thomas, even antihistamines commonly taken for cold symptoms and certain medicines available without prescriptions have been known to show up in dope tests. He also flagged the growing use of protein supplements and bodybuilding products among younger pilots, saying some of these products have triggered false positives.
The association's advice to pilots is therefore to avoid self-medication and ensure that any medication they take is prescribed and disclosed to their company doctor.
"Sometimes even antihistamines, which are taken for cold," can show up in testing, Thomas said, adding that certain gym and bodybuilding supplements could also trigger false positives.
Thomas stressed that a non-negative screening result should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of substance abuse. He said pilots have to undergo drug testing, including random testing, but a screening result needs to be followed by appropriate confirmatory testing before any conclusion is reached.
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"Dope test does not mean drug use," Thomas said, pointing out that a range of substances that may not indicate drug abuse can affect test results.
He also highlighted the seriousness of such a result for a pilot's career. According to Thomas, false positives have occurred in other forms of testing as well, including breath analyser and blood tests, which is why reconfirmation procedures are important.
"Before condemning a person," he said, the testing process needs to establish with certainty that a violation has actually occurred.
Technical Probe Separate From Pilot Testing
Thomas also sought to separate the drug-testing issue from the investigation into why the Air India aircraft lost around 300 feet of altitude.
He said the two issues should not be conflated: investigators are separately examining what happened technically on the aircraft and whether the pilot's test ultimately establishes any violation.
According to the pilot and engineering reports cited by Thomas, the aircraft experienced what was described as a technical fault involving all three hydraulic systems. The autopilot disconnected and a stall warning was triggered, following which the co-pilot, who was flying the aircraft at the time, took corrective action and the aircraft lost altitude in the process.
Thomas said the reports filed by the pilots would be checked against flight data recorder information as part of the investigation.
The comments come as the probe into the Aug. 4 Phuket-Delhi incident widens, with India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau leading the investigation and Airbus and France's aviation safety agency BEA also expected to participate.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320, reportedly dropped around 300 feet and 17 people were injured. Thomas argued that the available information should not be used to link the incident to medication or substance use until the confirmatory testing is complete.
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