Hans News Service New Delhi

Aviationwatchdog DGCA has ordered drug tests for pilots across all airlines and the exercise is to be completed by July 2027.

Separately, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Thursday said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is expected to finalise the draft on the new norms for drug tests of pilots by the end of this month.

The moves come against the backdrop of the pilot-in-command of an Air India Phuket-Delhi flight, which suddenly lost nearly 300 feet altitude leaving many passengers injured on August 4, testing positive for drug use.

On September 4, Air India terminated the services of the pilot-in-command, hours after probe agency AAIB's preliminary report into the Phuket flight incident said the drug use by the pilot was a serious concern and asked regulator DGCA to take appropriate action.

The sources on Thursday said DGCA ordered drug testing for pilots across all airlines last month and that the carriers have been asked to complete the exercise by July next year.

Naidu, on the sidelines of a conference in the national capital on Thursday, said draft of the revised Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) regarding testing of pilots for psychoactive substances is expected to be finalised by the end of this month after stakeholders' discussions.

Currently, drug tests for pilots are done on a random basis. Under DGCA's present Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), random tests for psychoactive substances have to be done for 10 per cent of pilots and air traffic controllers, among others, annually.

There are more than 12,000 pilots with various commercial airlines.