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NIU Office of Public Affairs


News Release

Contact: Joe King, Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-4299

January 23, 2002

Attention: Editor

NIU study urges swifter screening
of pilots ticketed for DUI

DE KALB — While federal officials focus on cockpit doors and carry-on luggage to improve the safety of airline travel, NIU Professor Kathleen McFadden says there is perhaps one other thing that should be examined more closely: the driving records of pilots.

In research published in the Journal of Operations Management this fall, McFadden examined the 10-year-old Federal Aviation Administration system for dealing with commercial airline pilots who have been ticketed for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“The existing program was a good, proactive first step,” McFadden says. “However, our findings indicate that it has done nothing to improve airline safety. I think a more effective program is needed, one that includes some sort of intervention.”

Among her findings were:

  • The existing program does not appear to have worked as a deterrent. It has not reduced the likelihood of pilots receiving either a first time, or subsequent conviction for DUI.
  • The proportion of pilots receiving DUI convictions in the five-year period after the implementation of the present program was significantly higher than for the five-year period prior to its implementation.
  • The proportion of pilots receiving multiple DUI convictions has increased since the program was implemented.

The study, which was funded by the FAA, was a follow up to earlier research by McFadden that examined data from 1986-1992. That study found that pilots with one DUI conviction had twice the risk of pilot-error accidents, while pilots with two or more DUI convictions were four times more likely to be involved in such accidents.

In the midst of that study period, the FAA instituted a new program to deal with pilots convicted of driving under the influence. Prior to that time, no action was taken against a pilot convicted of that offense as long as he or she reported the incident to the FAA. The new program, instituted in November 1990, eliminated the self-reporting. Instead, the FAA now actively screens the driving records of pilots. Under the program, any pilot who receives two or more DUI convictions within three years can have his or her pilot’s certificate or rating revoked, effectively banning them from flying.

To gauge the effectiveness of the revised regulations, McFadden studied a five-year period prior to the new rules (1986-90) and a five-year period after they took effect (1993-97).

She found that during the period prior to new rules, 1,478 commercial pilots, or .97 percent of all licensed commercial pilots, were convicted of DUI. In the later period, 2,593 pilots, or 1.62 percent of all licensed commercial pilots, were convicted of DUI. That increase came during a period when the number of DUI convictions among Americans in general declined by 20 percent, McFadden notes.

She also found that, since implementation of the new system, the incidence of pilot-error accidents among pilots without a DUI conviction has improved significantly while pilots with DUI convictions remain several times more likely to be involved in such incidents.

“This finding alone would seem to argue for program improvement,” says McFadden, who believes that her studies indicate a need for stronger actions after a pilot receives just one DUI conviction.

“The current system allows many pilots who receive DUI convictions to slip through the gaps. Our findings show that 463 commercial pilots had multiple convictions during the 10 years studied, and most managed to escape FAA penalties due to the timing of their convictions,” McFadden says.

“I believe the program would be more effective if action were taken the first time a pilot received a DUI,” McFadden says, suggesting that any commercial pilot convicted of DUI should be required to undergo medical evaluation for alcoholism after the first offense. “Doing so would address potential problems more quickly, perhaps reducing accident rates and saving careers down the line.”

McFadden is a professor in the NIU College of Business, in Operations Management and Information Systems. She became interested in applying operations analysis techniques to aviation issues because her husband is a commercial airlines pilot.

“It’s important to research safety and assess the impact of governmental safety programs, and I think this is a particularly pertinent example of why,” she says.

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