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Experts canvass regular medical, psychological checks on pilots

By Chika Goodluck-Ogazi
01 July 2016   |   3:55 am
Due to cases of plane crashes that are blamed on human errors, particularly medical and psychological issues among pilots, there has been urgent call by the stakeholders to regularly upgrade ...
Pilots in the cockpit. PHOTO: time.com

Pilots in the cockpit. PHOTO: time.com

Due to cases of plane crashes that are blamed on human errors, particularly medical and psychological issues among pilots, there has been urgent call by the stakeholders to regularly upgrade the aero medical section of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), aviation alcohol and drug policy is determined at three levels: international, national and by each airline or air force. The body also determined common international requirements to which all member states subscribe.

However, ICAO licensing requirements for aircraft maintenance personnel, air traffic controllers, flight operations officers, and aeronautical station operators, as well as flight crew, specified that a license applicant shall have no established history or clinical diagnosis of alcoholism or drug dependence.

It added that periodic medical assessments, specified in the regulations, provide an opportunity for the detection of alcohol or drug problems arising in existing license holders, stressing that the regulations prohibit pilots and other flight crew from flying whilst their performance is impaired by alcohol or other drugs.

Speaking with The Guardian, on the issue, an aviation security expert, Group Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd) stated that NCAA must go all round to check every pilot, to avoid what happened to the Egypt Air that crashed recently and other air crashes caused by pilots.

He noted that these are some of the reasons the regulator should check medical and psychological state of these pilots from time to time.

According to him, “You don’t wait to do annual medical checks on the pilots, because some of them are taking drugs. Every state under ICAO should come up on how they are to check their pilots. A lot of accidents have happened and we don’t know why they happened. Some of them are caused by the pilots themselves. Some pilots even fight themselves on the air.”

He added: “So, my advice to NCAA is that they should not wait for pilot annual medical report, rather, they should from time to time go to check them, enter the aircraft, and feel the state of the pilot by cracking jokes with them. And they should go with psychologists. I suggest that NCAA should have a branch of medical section of psychologists that go with them for such checks.”

Also speaking, a Director and Training Coordinator of Aeroconsult, Capt. Dele Ore, said that the regulation is very clear for any pilot, cabin crews, engineers not to take alcohol 8 hours before duty or flight.

According to Ore, “I don’t know what information NCAA heard before they found these ones. It is a very serious offence, If they have just withdrawn their license, then they found them very lucky.”

However, he maintained that it is the responsibility of the regulatory authority to do oversight medical checks on the pilots regularly, because to him, NCAA has the power to suspend, revoke, cancel or withdraw a pilot’s license that is caught with intake of excess alcohol before his or her flight.

“I also commend the effort of the regulator authority, and that they must keep away all these inadequacies and malpractices from our aviation industry. They should not relent on the need to flush them out of the system. They should double their efforts. Aero medical, Ore noted, needed to be upgraded and financed to encourage more medical research.”

Meanwhile, NCAA has withdrawn the license of three Nigerian pilots who were found to have taken alcohol at the time they were to operate their flights. The affected pilots, it was reported, were suspended for the 180 days in line with the provisions of Part 2.1.11.8(f) 1 of the Nigerian civil Aviation Regulation (CARS), 2009.

They were also asked to return their license to NCAA within 75 days and they must undergo detoxification and psychiatric evaluation by a consultant psychiatrist. The report would be reviewed by NCAA consultant before restoration.

To the industry watchers, the rule if taken serious by pilots would boost on safety of air travel and it is one of the critical rules that must be obeyed by pilots.

The consequence they said may be a plane crash or a major incident and whenever a pilot is caught with alcohol during random testing of pilots at the ramp, his license is withdrawn but how long the pilot would be made not to fly is discretionary; there is no given period the license could be restored.

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