Co-pilot, flight attendant fail drug tests

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Two Indonesian crew members failed a drug test conducted by the Transport Ministry along with the National Anti-Narcotics Agency (BNN) at the airport on Wednesday, June 29.

The test comes right before lebaran, a major national holiday in the country, which sees millions of Indonesians traveling home. 

According to local media, the authorities aimed to have 600 cabin crew, including pilots and flight attendants, take the the urine tests per day. 

So far, two failed the test.

“The current result of the investigation is that a co-pilot and an air hostess are suspected of having consumed amphetamine,” Bachtiar Tambunan, BNN Inspector General, said as quoted by local media.

Tambunan explained that the co-pilot and flight attendant work for different airlines, but he did not reveal which airlines they were.

“The two crew members claimed that they were suffering from illness and had taken some medicine,” Tambunan added, emphasizing BNN is investigating the case. 

But Tambunan said even if they were truly sick, the two should not have flown and endangered the safety of the passengers.

The Transportation Ministry has also launched a series of drug tests for bus drivers, train conductors and air crew.

Around 6,000 air crew are expected to take the drug tests to ensure the safety of all passengers, who will travel during Ramadan homecoming.

In December last year, BNN arrested a co-pilot and two flight attendants who worked for Lion Air, for drug use. Although all of them were banned from working for the airline, Lion Air did not get any sanctions from authorities. – Rappler.com