The "High" and the Mighty

It seems to be happening frequently now: an airline pilot at the pinnacle of his career gets hauled off the airplane in handcuffs for attempting to fly - or for already having flown - while drunk. Or high. It’s troubling when a pilot throws away a great career and faces years in prison, but more troubling when he puts his passengers in jeopardy. I personally know airline pilots who were arrested for that offense.

I’ve also heard about pilots being caught by the drug screening program. I surmise that most of the time, it is not innocent or accidental use of prohibited substances. And, although the number of cases of drunk/drugged pilots is small, any number is too large when it comes to safely operating an aircraft.

So, for starters, what are the rules, and what are the limits? FAR 91.17 gives specific guidance on the blood alcohol content (BAC) prohibited for flight: 0.04% or greater. But the rule goes further. No person may operate or attempt to operate an aircraft within 8 hours of having consumed alcohol (some airlines have stricter rules, such as 12 hours), or while under the influence of alcohol. That last part, “under the influence of alcohol”, can be a deal-breaker. Let’s face it - if you are hung over, even if it has been more than the required 8 hours, you are being influenced by alcohol. And experts tell us that a hangover can last 48 to 72 hours after your last drink.

How many drinks does it take to have a BAC or more than 0.04%? It depends. It depends on gender, body size and amount of time since ingestion. In general, the average person eliminates 1/3 to 1/2 ounces of pure alcohol per hour (about the amount of alcohol contained in one common drink - whiskey, table wine or beer). This elimination rate for pure alcohol is 0.015 mg% per hour. You can actually calculate your BAC using the formula BAC = (bodyweight per drink x number of drinks) - (elimination rate x number of hours since last drink). The “bodyweight per drink” number is 0.04% per drink for a 110-pound person, 0.03% per drink for a 155-pound person, and 0.02% per drink for a 200-pound person.

So let’s take a 155-pound pilot who consumes 6 drinks and waits 8 hours to go fly.

(0.03 x 6) - (0.015 x 8) = 0.06%. In other words, even after 8 hours, this pilot is over the limit!

On average, one airline pilot per month is caught flying over the 0.04% limit. That’s just the number of pilots who are caught, either because of random or just-cause alcohol screening. There’s no way to know how many - perhaps your flying partner on your next flight - are out there and have simply slipped through. More the 20 years ago, a regional airline Captain had his license revoked because he hadn’t noticed that his Copilot (whom he had never before flown with) was legally over the limit. (Let me ask you - have you ever been trained to identify if someone you don’t know is over the limit?) Fortunately, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) was able to go to bat for him and get his license reinstated.

FAR 91.17 also talks about drugs, prohibiting operation while using any drug that affects the person’s faculties in any way contrary to safety. In 2015, 38 pilots tested positive for one or more prohibited drugs during DOT-mandated screenings. In many states, marijuana is now legal. If you have a 3-day Denver layover on April 20th, can you go to the famous 420 party (420 being the police code for marijuana, and 4/20 being the date for the celebration) and smoke a joint? I recommend you don’t. THC, the active ingredient that causes a high, results in a metabolite called THC-COOH in the urine, which is detectable in drug screening tests. THC-COOH is produced when the liver breaks down THC. The threshold for the detectable limit is 50 ng/ml. The length of detection period varies per individual, but, in general, occasional users will have detectable levels for about 4 days, frequent users will be detectable for up to 10 days, and in extreme cases it will be detectable for up to 67 days.

So, could you just go to the 420 party and watch the crazy pot-heads without worrying about testing positive from breathing their second-hand smoke? You probably don’t need to worry unless you inhaled so much of the smoke that you got high. But drug-screening dogs at the airport may alert on you because of the scent your clothing absorbed.

Naturally, you want to avoid any illegal drug, but there are potential over-the-counter medications that could cause drug screening problems as well as psycho-pharmacalogical issues when you fly. The best bet is to check with your AME if you plan to ingest any cold medicine or other medications.

If you fly internationally, you may find rules that are quite different. In Britain, the maximum legal limit for alcohol for pilots is 20 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood (about half pint of beer), one-fourth the 80 milligrams allowed for driving. In Pakistan, the rule is 12 hours bottle-to-throttle, regardless of the amount of alcohol ingested. Clearly, a pilot in Pakistan could still be under the influence of alcohol if he drank a significant amount of alcohol 12 hours before the flight. If you fly outside of the U.S., the best bet is to stick to the FAR.

Regarding illegal drugs, the limits and punishment vary all over the map. Legal cannabis bars are common in Amsterdam, but don’t forget how long it takes for THC to clear out of your body. In Dubai, passengers and crew are routinely screened in the arrival area of the terminal. A British man was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison when the screeners found a small speck of cannabis on the sole of his shoe. Makes you think twice about visiting that cannabis bar “just to look”. Another traveler was jailed in Dubai when the screeners found poppy seeds - from the roll he had eaten at breakfast at Heathrow - that had fallen into his pocket. When I was on a layover in Kuala Lampur, I noticed large billboard signs warning everyone that the punishment for possessing illegal drugs is death. In some countries, preflight alcohol testing is mandatory. In India, a medical doctor is stationed at Dispatch to administer a breathalyzer test to each pilot. Then he will sign a form attesting to the pilot’s sobriety.

So, now that we’ve talked about what it takes to put your career in jeopardy, what are the steps you should take? For starters, take a good look in the mirror and answer the following questions:

• Do you drink to relax?
• Do you have blackouts?
• Do you lie about your drinking?
• Are you unable to stop drinking once you start?
• Do you drink even when you shouldn’t - like when taking medication?
• Do you neglect your responsibilities?
• Are you having trouble in your relationships?
• Have you built up tolerance so that you can drink more than you used to?
• Are you unable to quit?

If the answer to some or all of these is in the affirmative, you may want to get professional help. As pilots, we like to think we can handle any situation ourselves. Most of us have Type-A personalities. But good application of CRM includes gathering all available information and knowing when to listen to others. The CRM mantra is “It’s not who’s right, it’s what’s right.”

In the airline industry, the Human Intervention Motivation Study (HIMS) Program is designed to coordinate the identification, treatment, and return to the cockpit of impaired aviators. The program has been invaluable in helping resurrect careers that, 20 years ago, would have been doomed. I flew with one of the first pilots to return to the cockpit under the HIMS Program. “One drink was too much,” he told me, “and twenty drinks weren’t enough.”

The airline pilot job can be extremely stressful. As pilots, we need to deal with our stress levels in acceptable, intelligent ways. There are lots of ways to deal with stress, such as music, exercise, and hobbies that do not involve alcohol.

As an airline pilot, you have a legal responsibility under 49 U.S. Code 44701 to “provide service with the highest possible degree of safety in the public interest”. That means doing everything humanly possible to enhance safety in an operation. If there’s anything, anything, that you can do to enhance safety as an airline pilot, you need to do it, for every flight. And during every pre-flight layover.

That level of safety is demonstrated thousands of times every day in the U.S. airline industry, which remains the safest mode of transportation in the world.