Medicals ground one pilot each day

Pilots are being grounded for medical reasons at a rate of almost one a day, the Civil Aviation Authority has revealed.

The rate of medical certificate suspensions has roughly doubled since the existing system for aviation medical certificates was introduced in 2001, the agency told Associate Transport Minister Nathan Guy in a briefing paper on drug and alcohol monitoring.

There have been more than 1481 medical suspensions since then, and the rate is now 20 to 30 a month.

Civil Aviation director Steve Douglas said in the paper, released to the Herald under the Official Information Act, that suspension records "do not allow us to extract how many relate to alcohol or other drug issues".

Neither, they say, is any data available to indicate how many suspensions involve holders of airline or commercial flying licences.

Of the 10,242 pilots with current medical certificates in March, 1104 have certificates entitling them to fly for airlines, and 2369 are cleared for for other commercial flights.

But Mr Douglas said the agency's experience suggested that although the use of alcohol by pilots and air traffic controllers was similar to that of other New Zealanders, the percentage drinking "unsafely" was lower than for the general population.

The agency also believed their use of recreational drugs was lower.

Despite the high incidence of medical certificate suspensions, Mr Douglas said the aviation authority had revoked few certificates - probably fewer than five in the past eight years - and none because of drug or alcohol abuse.

But eight pilots had been prosecuted since 2000 for making fraudulent or misleading statements about alcohol or drug use to obtain medical certificates, and one for failing to disclose information on the subject.

Authority spokesman Bill Sommer acknowledged that 20 to 30 medical suspensions a month "does sound a lot" but he said most were for "run of the mill stuff".

"These range from sprained wrists, broken arms, collarbones, right up to people with heart problems," he said.

He said initial suspensions lasted up to 10 days, after which the authority disqualified pilots from flying until they could provide doctors' notes to show they had recovered from their ailments.

A pilot whose certificate was revoked would have to start anew in applying for medical clearance to fly.

Mr Sommer said that because the authority held paper files on more than 10,000 pilots, it would be too time-consuming to sort through them all to determine how many were being monitored for alcohol or other drug problems.

But he said that if a pilot had a problem requiring enlistment in a treatment programme, "there will be a file bring-up and they will keep on being monitored".

The authority is considering introducing an electronic medical certification database for about $1.6 million, depending on a funding review.

The Herald requested the monitoring information after police documents describing at least six incidents of drink-driving involving four Air New Zealand staff between 2007 and last year were made public in February.

These included a pilot stopped by a booze bus in May 2007, the fourth time he was caught drink driving.

Two aircraft engineers and a uniformed flight attendant on her way to work were also caught.

It later emerged that pilot Warwick West had accumulated three drink-driving convictions without telling the authorities about them, although an earlier charge was dropped.

Air New Zealand described him as a "model citizen" who had been rehabilitated through the airline's drug and alcohol programme.

He was convicted and fined $4250 in 2008 after pleading guilty to a charge under the Civil Aviation Act of making a misleading statement on a medical examination form.

The law requires pilots to disclose any criminal convictions, but Mr Douglas acknowledged in his ministerial note that the regulatory system relied heavily on individuals acting responsibly.

He said his agency would welcome enhancements to its ability to obtain relevant information.

Mr Guy, the associate minister, said last month that the aviation authority would work with the Ministry of Justice to introduce random checks on commercial pilots for any undeclared criminal convictions.

That would be as well as an existing check required when a pilot gains a flying licence.

Flying low

* 10,242 Pilots with Class 1 or Class 2 medical certificates

* 1104 Airline pilots with Class 1 certificates

* 2369 Other commercial pilots with Class 1 certificates

* 20-30 Pilots grounded each month for medical reasons