Boeing 777 Crash :Why Didn't NTSB Or FAA Request Asiana Crew Voluntary Drug And Alcohol Test?
It’s hard for most people to understand why the US does not require the pilots of a foreign air carrier that crash landed a Boeing BA -4.69%-777 at San FranciscoInternational Airport causing numerous injuries and two fatalities to be drug and alcohol tested just like US crews would have been. But it’s even harder to understand why no one requested that the crew of Asiana Flight 214 voluntarily submit to drug and alcohol testing. Just because you can’t make them do it, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to get them to do it voluntarily.
While there’s no indication in news reports that the pilots on the Asiana flight were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, no determination that they were not in fact under the influence can be made without the proper tests. In addition to screening for illegal drugs such as marijuana and cocaine, standard drug tests also screen for over-the-counter drugs that can affect human performance.
The reason for post-accident drug and alcohol testing is because we have had fatal accidents that have been caused by people who were impaired by both legal and illegal substances. It is dismaying that the government did not request that the crews agree to voluntarily submit to these important tests. With so many issues swirling around cockpit crew performance, the failure to request drug and alcohol testing will always leave questions unanswered.
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