Not practical for airlines to conduct blood and urine tests of crew to negate false positives in breath analyser tests: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court recently held that it is not practical for airlines to conduct blood and urine test of their crew and that there are sufficient precautionary measures under Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) to safeguard the crew members against false positives in breath analyser (BA) tests..Justice Gaurang Kanth said that procedure laid out under the CAR to rule out the possibility of false positives to the maximum extent and creating infrastructure for blood and urine test will add to airlines’ operational costs and burden them unnecessarily.“Thus, in view of this Court, considering the infeasibility and impracticality of conducting blood and urine tests at Airport by operators, CAR does not anywhere put an obligation upon operator to conduct blood and urine test and that is why it only talks about BA Tests. In fact, in the incidents of accidents also, the duty is not of the operator to conduct blood and urine tests, but the duty is imposed upon the Officer-in-Charge of Airport to conduct these tests. With regard to the aspect of false positive, CAR already has laid down procedure so as to eliminate the possibility of false positives,” the Court said..Justice Kanth was dealing with a plea filed by a pilot of Vistara airlines challenging the orders passed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspending him for three months for having failed the BA test. The test showed 0.004% alcohol in his blood.As he was removed from the flying roster, the pilot went to NABL accredited laboratories which revealed that he had not consumed alcohol. The pilot argued that BA test was a false positive as the blood and urine tests are more reliable..After considering the case, the Bench rejected his plea noting that there is no perversity or material irregularity in the order and that the petitioner reported for his flying duty in violation of provisions of CAR and Aircraft Rules 1937.“The job of a pilot is a job of responsibility. When he is on duty, he is carrying responsibility of the lives of the passengers and crew members on board of his flight. Any minute error by pilot can turn into a major accident within seconds. Due to this huge responsibility, CAR stipulates the permissible amount of blood alcohol content as ‘zero’. The Petitioner should have whole heartedly followed the provisions of CAR and should not have reported for duty after consuming alcohol,” the Court said. .Advocates Sanjeev Kumar and Anshul Sehgal appeared for the petitioner.Advocates Anjana Gosain, Nippun Sharma and Hetika Vadhera appeared for the Central government and DGCA.Advocate Akshat Hansaria represented Vistara..[Read Order]