Drinking and Flying — The Problem of Alcohol Use by Pilots

Abstract

ALCOHOL is the most widely used and misused drug in the Western world. The cost to the United States in 1990 in terms of lost production, crime, accidents, and treatment related to alcohol misuse is expected to exceed $136 billion, and alcohol intoxication is a cause or contributing factor in approximately 40 percent of all fatal automobile accidents.¹ Alcohol misuse is also a problem among the nearly 700,000 general-aviation pilots in this country. ( "General aviation" refers to all civil-aviation operations other than those conducted for remuneration or hire; therefore, it does not include the commercial airlines or military operations.) Although the fatal-accident rate for general aviation is relatively low (about 1.5 per 100,000 hours flown in fixed-wing aircraft), a substantial portion of such accidents have been related to the consumption of alcoholic beverages before or during flight.