Federal Aviation Regulations - Essay Example

Federal Aviation Regulations. It is an indispensable fact that the world over will be chaotic if laws and regulations were not to exist. Living in a world where life is under full control of laws of nature is something that is far beyond any human imagination in the world today. Research shows that entropy in the prevailing natural world, tents to infinity as years roll down on earth. Technological advancements have made the situation even worse. Industrial emissions, poisonous gases, automobile emissions, as well as, aerosols prevalence in the upper atmosphere are always increasing. This is due to the ever increasing scientific discoveries that despite being beneficial to human survival, they are a tremendous threat to the beautiful nature in which human derive their livelihood. This explains why despite the fact that many discoveries have been made, human beings are still under epidemic threats. This is a fact well illustrated by the high number of cancer cases. If all this happens in a world where laws and regulation are the order of the day, what if the world were not to have any existing binding laws and regulation? The answer to this lays in the Federal aviation Regulations. Prying Questions to anyone that comes across such a discussion are: what are the Federal Aviations Regulations? How and why the Federal Aviation Regulations came into existence? How applicable and reasonable are they? Are they supportive to innovations and advancements in Aviation industry or should they be faced out? This paper aims at responding to such questions narrowing down specifically to the regulation that regulates Alcohol and drug in the aviation industry. The Federal Aviation Regulations, commonly referred to as FARs, are the Federal Aviation Administration rules that govern all the activities of aviation in the United States. These regulations are contained in the Code of federal regulations (CFR). The regulations are designed in a way to promoting safe aviation, protecting the general public, as well as, passengers from risks. A variety of activities is regulated by the Federal Aviation Regulations. These includes, airplane designs, activities for the pilot training, typical airline flight, lighter-than-air aircrafts, hot-air ballooning, model rocket launches, model aircraft operations, obstruction marking and lighting, and man- made structures height. Organization. The Federal Aviation Regulations are organized into sections. These sections are called parts because of their organization in the CFR (Burkhardt 29). Each of the parts deals specifically with an activity. For instance, 14 CFR Part 141 has rules for schools for training pilots. Many of the Federal Aviation Regulations have a design that helps in regulating certification of schools, pilots or the aircrafts rather than the aircraft operations. Therefore, certification of an aircraft design using part of FARs the airplane is certified irrespective of the change of the regulations in the future (Burkhardt 33). The Alcohol and Control substance testing law is one of the regulations contained in chapter 451 of the Federation aviation Regulations. After many transportation accidents, the Congress passed the 1991 Act of Transportation Employee Testing. This is because of recognition of the need for safety to ensure transportation of employees remain free of drug and alcohol. The transportation Act directed that DOT Agencies must implement testing of drugs for sensitive-safety transportation employees in trucking, mass transit, aviation, pipeline industries, and railroads. DOT added the alcohol testing requirement to its other regulations in 1994. This regulation prohibits the use of alcohol by the Air Carriers and Foreign Air employees. The Alcohol and Control regulation established that an individual should not use a control substances or alcohol after 28th October, 1991, while violating the regulation of the United State or law and still serve as a crewmember, airman, a contract employee of the airport screening security that is responsible for all safety-sensitive function. The regulation defines Alcohol as defined in Drug Abuse Preventions and Controls act established in1970 under section 102. The regulation established an alcohol and controlled testing program for foreign air and air carriers’ employees. The FAA prescribed the regulation that defines the conduct of the federal Aviation employees. The regulation established a program to deal with pre-employment, suspicion, post-accident and random testing for alcohol in violating government law for the administrative employees and other employees for air carrier whose responsibility involve safety sensitive function. For the safety of Aviation, the administration prescribed regulation that directs the conducting of periodic testing of crewmembers, airmen, and screening of contract personnel for security of the airport. The alcohol prescription regulation prescribed sanction for those who could break the rule. For those found violating the regulation, the sanctions they face included suspension, revocation of their certificates, dismissal from work, disqualification of the said individual once a contacted test confirms that the individual, used alcohol. Additionally, the regulation prohibited the performance of prior duty by the person, who once served as a member of the crew, airman, employee of air carrier, or administration employee responsible for sensitive safety functions, and found having used alcohol before1 28th of October 1991. The prohibition applied to individuals who used the alcohol when on duty, completed or started attending the rehabilitation as described by section 45105 before the use of the controlled substance, and the individual declined to start or complete the rehabilitation program. The regulation, as well, established laboratory requirement for testing the aircrews. This program demands that FAA administrators develop requirements for procedures for testing and laboratories for controlled substance by incorporating Health and Human substance department. The alcohol regulation is quite applicable and so far, it has worked well in bringing order and discipline in the aviation industry. The number of accidents dropped significantly after the adoption of this regulation. Research has it that, by 2003, the number of aircraft accidents had dropped by40%. This implies a positive response by the aviation employees towards a reformed aviation. However, if the law can be made to apply across the board rather than the most sensitive security employees alone, then the number of aircraft accidents would drop further. History of the Drug and Alcohol Regulation. In America, the Anti-liquor campaigns are said to date back in 1750s. Leaders of the times both political and religious begun to look at drunkenness as a curse for the nation. The organization so powerful against alcohol beverage consumption was the Anti-saloon League founded in Washington D.C on 18th Dec 1895 (Komons56). The motto for the organization became ‘the Saloon must go’. Unfortunately, despite the relentless effort by the League, Americans continued with the habit of Liquor consumption until the Eighteenth amendments were enforced turning prohibition into law. Wayne Wheeler who was the pioneer of the Anti-saloon league devised the Eighteenth Amendments. Andrew Volstead who was a mennesota congressman presented the bill to Congress on 16th Jan 1920. On that very day, all saloons throughout the USA were closed down. There and then, national prohibition came in place, climaxing long campaigns for forbidding liquor use within the boundaries of America. Implementation of the Eighteenth Amendments put into an end all the manufacturing, selling, importing, transporting, and transportation of intoxicating liquor (Komons65). After enacting the Eighteenth Amendments, the Volstead act was put into effect. The intoxicating liquor was determined as anything that has alcoholic contents of more than 0.5%, while omitting alcohols that are used for sacramental purposes and medicinal alcohol. The prohibition was to reduce on use of alcohol that was seen as devil’s advocate. This was to help reduce the rate of crime, death rates, improvement of the economy, poverty reduction, and the better quality of life. However, the 1920s prohibition amendments were ineffective and unenforceable. It caused increased crime rate and the alcohol consumption went up. Volstead Act was to determine enforcement methods and laws (Komons56). The formulation of Federal Prohibition Bureau was meant to foresee the enforcement of the Volstead Act. This law transformed over time until in 1995 when it deemed necessary to apply it in Aviation industry. This happened to follow alcohol related accidents. The most prominent accidents happened in Los Angeles where three people died in a drunken driving accident. This was followed by another accident in DUI where a cyclist got killed. The worse of all accidents happened after DUI crash where a drunken driver caused an accident that resulted in five people being hospitalized (Gilbert70). Employee Alcohol Regulations Laws applying to driving under alcohol influence apply as well to flying under alcohol influence (Gilbert30). Therefore, pilots have to follow the FAA regulations. In enforcing laws that concern alcohol consumption and flying, the federal aviation Administration started the post –accident testing of alcohol on all pilots involved in accidents as of in 1964. This was to help in determining whether or not alcoholism contributed to air traffic accidents and to come up with to sanctions to be imposed on such pilots. As a measure that is aimed at preventing air accidents, the law was passed in 1995(Gilbert 42). This made it a requirement that all pilots are tested for alcohol. With the law in place, FAA came up with a program that demanded that air carriers perform random testing of alcohol. This law applied specifically to safety- sensitive workers. It was mandatory for all employers to test about 25% of their safety-sensitive workers each year. Additionally, approximately 10,000 pilots for USA air transport are randomly subjected to alcohol breathalyzer tests. This showed positive rate in the decrease, in air accidents, in 2003 (Gilbert47). Pilot checks are applied in checking for DUI conviction pilots. Pilots are expected to report to FAA about the previous DUI convictions and report penalties imposed on them. In cases, where the grounded aviation professionals’ complete rehabilitation for the affected employees successful and the affected person are said to have recovered from his alcohol addiction, and he or she will be allowed to the aviation industry again. The regulations were last altered in 2009. Passenger Alcohol Policies The alcohol law does not apply discriminatively. The law applies to passengers, as well. Under this law, passengers are not allowed to carry alcohol onboard (Komons22). All alcoholic beverages have to be secured packed into luggage and checked. Passengers are prohibited from packing alcohol exceeding 140 proofs. Under this law, flight attendants are barred from serving alcohol to any passenger less than 21 years of age or who is already intoxicated. Neither does airport personnel legally allowed to permit intoxicated passengers to board aircrafts. Passengers Drug policies help in curbing drug trafficking. This includes using commercial aircraft in trafficking drugs (Komons45). It is a crime committed to Federal administration but the Drug Enforcement Administration is responsible for executing the punishment. Illegal acts may range from cocaine stuffing swallowing of heroin filled balloons. Work cited Burkhardt, Roberts. The Federal Aviation Administration. New York: Frederick. Praegers, 1967. Gilbert, Glens. Air Traffic Controls: The Uncrowded Skies. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973. Komon, Nick. Bonfire to Beacons: Federal Civil Aviation Policies in the Air Commerce Act, 1926-1938. Washington: DOT/FAA, 1980. Read More