Police mull more frequent drug tests for pilot

Following the arrests of airline pilots and crew members for drug possession, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) proposed a new policy to require pilots to submit to frequent drug tests.

“We propose to conduct drug tests on a monthly basis instead of once every six months as in the past,” BNN spokesman Sr. Comr. Sumirat Santoso said on Monday.

With the more frequent test, Sumirat said, pilots who take drugs would have little time to clean themselves before the drug test.

“Should the addiction level be low, those who want to pass the drug test could stop taking it two weeks prior to the test,” Sumirat said as quoted by kompas.com.

Sumirat said the agency would also impose unscheduled and random drug tests to target pilots with serious drug addictions. "We will carry out drug tests at random for pilots who are about to fly aircraft,” he said.

On Saturday, pilot SS, 44, who was scheduled to fly from Surabaya, East Java to Makassar, South Sulawesi was caught in his Surabaya hotel room, with 0.04 grams of crystal methamphetamine.

Recently, another pilot named Hanum Adhyaksa was arrested in a hotel in Makassar. He was found to be under the influence of crystal meth upon his arrest.