Can an employer give in-flight notification of random testing to flight crew members via the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), cell phone, in-range calls, etc.?
No, no form of in-flight notification may be used to notify pilots and flight attendants of random testing. According to FAA’s drug and alcohol testing regulations, an employer shall require that random testing is unannounced and each safety-sensitive employee who is notified of selection for random drug testing to proceed to the collection site immediately. The opportunity to report for testing immediately does not exist while in-flight; therefore, the use of in-flight notification is considered advance notification and is not permitted under our regulations. Additionally, FAA stated in the preamble to the January 12, 2004 Final Rule (69 Federal Register, Page 1848) that “such advance notification is inherently unfair because pilots and flight attendants are only two of the eight categories of safety-sensitive employees. In other words, six categories of employees are not accessible by the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) advance notification. In additio
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