Pilot Assistance
ALPA's infrastructure includes safeguards that give pilots confidential support and assistance, along with referrals to professional resources available in your community. In fact, with the specialized knowledge of ALPA's attorneys, the expertise of ALPA's Aeromedical Office, the pilot volunteers who serve on the Pilot Assistance Committee, and resources to hire outside experts where necessary, ALPA pilots enjoy a long history of successes on cases involving controversial drug and alcohol testing.
ALPA will not rest until your medical record receives proper validation. That expertise is just a phone call away for every ALPA pilot member. Can your independent union do that?
Recent Accomplishments
- Exposed Gross Laboratory Testing Misconduct: ALPA vindicated a wrongfully terminated Delta pilot, whose FAA certificates were revoked when the testing laboratory (LabOne) reported his urine sample had creatinine and specific gravity readings at the levels of water, and claimed that he "substituted" his sample. Despite this pilot's 20-year unblemished record and assertion of his innocence, neither the airline nor the FAA gave his claims any credence. ALPA appealed the enforcement action and grieved his firing.
With the help of an expert forensic toxicologist, ALPA counsel investigated LabOne. ALPA attorneys procured boxes of laboratory records and exposed the laboratory's bad testing practices, costing the laboratory director his job. These ALPA efforts, on behalf of the pilot, exposed pervasive and gross laboratory misconduct, including: (1) use of malfunctioning equipment, (2) backdating documents, (3) destroying evidence, (4) using deteriorating controls that caused inaccurate results, (5) failing to comply with applicable standards, and (6) lying under oath by the laboratory director.
ALPA succeeded in getting the pilot reinstated with all back pay and benefits, fully clearing his record with the FAA. Several previously fired Delta flight attendants were also cleared and reinstated.
- Ensured that Nationally Certified Laboratories Meet Regulatory Guidelines: As a result of ALPA's detection of laboratory errors and misconduct in handling validity tests, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ordered an emergency inspection of the national laboratories certified to conduct regulated testing. In that inspection, 40 or more of the 66 laboratories were found in noncompliance with the federal guidelines covering testing procedures. As a result, 300 test results previously reported as "substituted" were ordered canceled by the government.
- Advocated Validity Testing Standards: ALPA sought and achieved stricter regulations governing validity testing and succeeded in getting the criteria for samples reported as "substituted" to be more favorable to employees. In response to rules proposed by DOT in 2000, ALPA submitted extensive comments critiquing the procedures for validity testing, including the cutoff levels for deeming a sample to be "substituted." ALPA vigorously contended that DOT's creatinine cutoff level was not low enough and risked branding innocent individuals who produce ultra-dilute urine as rule violators.
DOT ultimately accepted ALPA's contentions, acknowledged that individuals produce urine below its creatinine cutoff without any wrongdoing on their part, and in May 2003 lowered the applicable threshold. DOT recently published a notice to employers establishing a "reconsideration procedure" for employees adversely affected before the rule change.
- Protected Pilots' Private Medical Records: ALPA helped a pilot avert an attempt by the government to order his private medical records released under threat of criminal prosecution. The U.S. Attorney filed a complaint against the residential treatment facility in which this pilot had received treatment, seeking the release of "John Doe" records by arguing that because this patient with an alcohol abuse problem is an airline pilot, he posed an immediate threat to airline safety, necessitating the release of his otherwise confidential medical records.
Burning the midnight oil on the eve before the hearing, ALPA counsel worked with the Aeromedical Office and prepared evidence to defeat the government's actions. Once this evidence was given to the FAA, the FAA recognized that the pilot was taking appropriate steps and that the action sought by the U.S. Attorney was unfounded. ALPA's efforts succeeded in convincing the court to dismiss the case.
Pilots Helping Pilots
"HIMS fosters airline safety. The program is a key tool that facilitates proper assistance for individuals who are desperately in need of help."
-Captain Dana Archibald
(American Eagle)
"As a safety volunteer trained in accident investigation, I hoped that I would never need the skills that ALPA taught me. But although I wasn't in an accident, investigating one affected me as if I had been. The trained pilot CIRP volunteers who helped me and other investigators to cope were essential in allowing us to represent our members who were involved."
-Captain Bill Wolf (Alaska)
