FAA tightens procedures for airline pilots who try to fly drunk WASHINGTON (AP) =97 After a doubling of airline pilots failing Breathalyzer= =20 tests, the government has tightened procedures to keep those caught drunk=20 out of the cockpit. Last year, 22 commercial airline pilots tested positive= =20 for alcohol use, up from nine in 2001, and nine pilots have tested positive= =20 this year. That's only a fraction of the approximately 75,000 U.S. airline= =20 pilots but enough to cause the Federal Aviation Administration to establish= =20 new procedures for dealing with drunk pilots. The jump in numbers, first=20 reported by Newsday, led the FAA to change its policy in January so that=20 pilots who fail sobriety tests immediately have both their medical and=20 airman's certificates revoked. Both certificates are required for a pilot=20 to fly. Previously, only the medical certificate was revoked in cases of=20 drug or alcohol use, said John Mazor, spokesman for the Air Line Pilots=20 Association, the largest pilots' union. Pilots can get caught in two ways: as part of the Transportation=20 Department's random tests of 10,000 airline pilots every year, or if their= =20 behavior arouses suspicion among airline officials or law enforcement=20 officers. Pilots must wait a year and go through rehabilitation to get=20 their medical certificates restored. To get their airman's certificate,=20 they must also wait a year and then retake all the written and flight tests= =20 required to fly a plane. An increasing number of pilots caught drunk while= =20 on duty doesn't necessarily mean more intoxicated pilots are trying to fly= =20 planes, experts say. It may mean more are getting caught. "There is a=20 higher level of public awareness," said Greg Overman, spokesman for the=20 Allied Pilots Union, which represents pilots at American Airlines. "The=20 number of false accusations has risen, and even when there's a false=20 accusation by a passenger or a security screener, it tends to make= headlines." In February, a pilot removed from a Delta Air Lines flight at Norfolk=20 International Airport was acquitted of operating a plane under the=20 influence of alcohol. Two America West pilots accused of trying to fly=20 drunk on a Phoenix-bound flight from Miami last year are scheduled to be=20 tried in Florida state court on July 7. In all three cases, federal=20 security screeners had smelled alcohol on the pilots. Robert Johnson,=20 spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, said airline=20 passengers as well as screeners are more likely to report something unusual= =20 at an airport since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Screeners are not trained= =20 to look for impaired pilots, Johnson said. "Their job is to search for and= =20 keep prohibited items off the aircraft." If a screener observes drunken=20 behavior, he or she is directed to report it to a supervisor, who has the=20 authority to report it to law enforcement and local airline officials, he= said. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************