U.S. Will Require Random Drug Tests for Flight Crews

Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole said Wednesday that she will require random drug tests for the nation’s airline pilots and flight crews, as well as 26,500 employees of her department who hold safety-related jobs, varying from air traffic controllers to railroad inspectors.

“When it comes to drug use in transportation, there can be no compromise,” Dole said in a statement.

Dole, noting that transportation affects tens of millions of Americans every day, said comprehensive drug-abuse initiatives are needed because “nowhere does the private choice to use drugs have more devastating public consequences than on our nation’s roads, rails, water and airways.”

Transportation officials said tests involving department employees will begin this spring but refused to predict when the regulation to test airline pilots and crew members would take effect. Dole plans to push for legislation to require testing for train operators, as well as authority to penalize rail workers who tamper with safety devices such as warning whistles.

Pilots’ Group Is Irked

The announcement drew an angry reaction from President Henry Duffy of the Air Line Pilots Assn., who said his union of 34,000 commercial pilots is “absolutely not going to accept random testing.” He predicted that the constitutionality of such a regulation would be challenged in court.

At the Air Transport Assn., which represents the nation’s major airlines, spokesman Thomas M. Tripp said the airlines are not opposed to random drug testing but oppose a mandatory regulation.

Dole made her announcement as legislation was being introduced in the Senate and the House that would require mandatory random drug testing for people with safety-sensitive jobs in the airline and railroad industries, as well as within the Transportation Department.

Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), who introduced a bill in the Senate, called the lack of random testing a “scandal” and said that “key safety employees should be tested for drugs on a random basis to detect abuse, and not after people have died in a train wreck or airline accident.”

‘Drug Tests Effective’

In the House, legislation was introduced by Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), who said that, “when administered properly and fairly, drug tests are an effective way to determine illegal narcotics use.”

The calls for mandatory drug testing came a week after it was disclosed that marijuana had been used by two Conrail train operators involved in the Jan. 4 collision with an Amtrak passenger train in which 16 people were killed and 175 injured.

Dole said the initiatives she was announcing were in line with the executive order issued by President Reagan last September requiring drug testing for federal employees who hold sensitive positions.

‘Safest in the World’

“While the U.S. transportation system is currently the safest in the world, the public must be assured that it will remain safe and drug free,” Dole said.

The Transportation Department regulations include:

--Pre-employment, post-accident and random testing for commercial airline pilots and crews and other employees directly responsible for the safety of flight operations.

--Pre-employment and random tests for department employees in “critical safety and security positions,” including flight test pilots, inspectors, firefighters, vessel traffic controllers, air traffic controllers, civil aviation security specialists, motor carrier safety specialists, railroad safety inspectors and hazardous material inspectors.