According to Regulation (EU) No 965/2012, amended by Regulation (EU) 2018/1042, EASA Member States shall ensure that alcohol testing of flight crew and cabin crew members is carried out regarding operators under their own oversight as well as with regard to operators under the oversight of another Member State or of a third country. Such testing shall be performed by ramp inspectors within the framework of the Ramp Inspection Programme of Subpart RAMP of Annex II to the above mentioned Regulation.
According to the EU Regulation for the breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) in Bulgaria is applicable the national statutory limit which is equal to the EASA limit. Therefore, the breath alcohol concentration (BrAC), measured during the alcohol test, should not exceed a level equivalent to 0.2 g/L grams of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) per liter of blood.
Every positively tested crew member will be:
- Removed from duty.
- Handed over to the legal enforcement body if required.
- Reported to the Licensing and State of operator Authorities.
Any refusal or lack of cooperation will be regarded as a positive case.
WHO WE TEST
Flight crew and cabin crew members with assigned operational duty may be subject to alcohol tests.
‘Flight crew member’: a licensed crew member charged with duties essential to the operation of an aircraft during a flight duty period
‘Cabin crew member’: an appropriately qualified crew member, other than a flight crew or technical crew member, who is assigned by an operator to perform duties related to the safety of passengers and flight during operations.
Flight crew and cabin crew members with assigned operational duty may be subject to alcohol tests.
The crew size may justify a sampling of the crew to avoid unreasonable delay but may focus on flight crew members as their assigned duties are usually more critical for the conduct of the flight.
A ROBUST PROCEDURE
Every alcohol test will consist of an initial alcohol test followed by a confirmation test in case of an initial positive result.
The confirmation test will be carried out as soon as possible after a waiting time of at least 15 minutes. This waiting time should normally be shorter than 30 minutes to ensure a similarity of results between the initial and confirmation test.
During this waiting time, the tested flight crew or cabin crew member will not be allowed to ingest any food. She/he will be able to continue its duty only if it doesn’t affect the correct application of the testing procedure.
Crew members Alcohol tests in Bulgaria will be performed by means of approved evidential brethilyser ALCOSCAN ALP-1 (DINGO E-200).
The positively tested crew member will receive a written confirmation containing information on the time and date of the alcohol test, the equipment used, as well as the actual result of the alcohol test.
Last relevant maintenance document of the testing device available on request.
Crew members Alcohol tests in Bulgaria will be performed by means of approved evidential brethilyser ALCOSCAN ALP-1 (DINGO E-200) which allows to use the test results in the event of a judicial proceedings.
PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
Every alcohol test will respect privacy and confidentiality of results.
Tested crew members can request a witness to attend the test as far as it does not cause unreasonable delay and it is compatible with the testing procedure.
The operator and its competent authority are informed about all alcohol tests through the ramp inspection reports in the ramp inspection tool; these reports do not hold personal data.
In case of positively tested crew member, detailed actual test results and personal data of the concerned crew member will be provided to the competent authorities, both State of Operator and Licensing Authority.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
All personal data is processed in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons regarding the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data). Complete information on personal data processing will be provided to positively tested crew members as necessary.