About 50 pilots a year in India can’t fly because they’re already buzzed.
That’s according to the country’s Director General of Civil Aviation.
Pilots and cabin crew can’t consume alcohol 12 hours before a flight. Flights have been cancelled when tests showed pilots had consumed alcohol.
This certainly seems to be a serious situation. However, the airline industry in India is booming. Pilots often get called to staff a flight on short notice, so an alcoholic drink on what pilots thought was their day off can become problematic.
India has about 5,000 commercial pilots, so the test failure rate amounts to about 1%.
For those who’ve been inconvenienced by this trend in India, help is on the way. Another 2,500 people are undergoing pilot training, which would increase the number of available fliers by 50%.
