FAR 91.1047 — Drug and Alcohol Education
FAR 91.1047 requires fractional ownership program managers to provide drug and alcohol misuse education to crew, instructors, and maintenance personnel.
In Plain English
FAR 91.1047 applies to fractional ownership program managers under Subpart K and sets the rules for drug and alcohol misuse education.
Key requirements:
- Every direct employee acting as a flight crewmember, flight attendant, flight instructor, or aircraft maintenance technician must receive drug and alcohol misuse education.
- Contract employees performing those same duties must also have received this education before the program manager may use them.
- Program managers must disclose to current and prospective owners whether they run a company drug and alcohol testing program. If they do, the disclosure must cover the substances tested, categories of employees and types of tests (pre-employment, random, reasonable cause, post-accident, return-to-duty, follow-up), and how comparable the program is to the Part 120 federally mandated program.
- For emergency maintenance at an airport with no qualified personnel, an unqualified mechanic may be used, but the program manager must notify the FAA Drug Abatement Program Division in writing within 10 days, keep that record for 2 years, and have the aircraft reinspected by qualified personnel at the next available airport.
Emergency maintenance means unscheduled work needed because of a condition not discovered before departure. Education delivered under an FAA-approved prevention program satisfies this rule.
This matters because it ensures everyone touching the aircraft — whether employed directly or under contract — understands the dangers of substance misuse in safety-critical roles.
Regulation Text
14 CFR § 91.1047§ 91.1047 Drug and alcohol misuse education program.
(a) Each program manager must provide each direct employee performing flight crewmember, flight attendant, flight instructor, or aircraft maintenance duties with drug and alcohol misuse education.
(b) No program manager may use any contract employee to perform flight crewmember, flight attendant, flight instructor, or aircraft maintenance duties for the program manager unless that contract employee has been provided with drug and alcohol misuse education.
(c) Program managers must disclose to their owners and prospective owners the existence of a company drug and alcohol misuse testing program. If the program manager has implemented a company testing program, the program manager's disclosure must include the following:
(1) Information on the substances that they test for, for example, alcohol and a list of the drugs;
(2) The categories of employees tested, the types of tests, for example, pre-employment, random, reasonable cause/suspicion, post accident, return to duty and follow-up; and
(3) The degree to which the program manager's company testing program is comparable to the federally mandated drug and alcohol testing program required under part 120 of this chapter regarding the information in paragraphs (c)(1) and (c)(2) of this section.
(d) If a program aircraft is operated on a program flight into an airport at which no maintenance personnel are available that are subject to the requirements of paragraphs (a) or (b) of this section and emergency maintenance is required, the program manager may use persons not meeting the requirements of paragraphs (a) or (b) of this section to provide such emergency maintenance under both of the following conditions:
(1) The program manager must notify the Drug Abatement Program Division, AAM-800, 800 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20591 in writing within 10 days after being provided emergency maintenance in accordance with this paragraph. The program manager must retain copies of all such written notifications for two years.
(2) The aircraft must be reinspected by maintenance personnel who meet the requirements of paragraph (a) or (b) of this section when the aircraft is next at an airport where such maintenance personnel are available.
(e) For purposes of this section, emergency maintenance means maintenance that—
(1) Is not scheduled, and
(2) Is made necessary by an aircraft condition not discovered prior to the departure for that location.
(f) Notwithstanding paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section, drug and alcohol misuse education conducted under an FAA-approved drug and alcohol misuse prevention program may be used to satisfy these requirements.
[Docket FAA-2001-10047, 68 FR 54561, Sept. 17, 2003, as amended by Amdt. 91-307, 74 FR 22653, May 14, 2009]
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Oral Exam Questions a DPE Might Ask
Q1Under Subpart K, who must receive drug and alcohol misuse education?
Per FAR 91.1047, every direct employee performing flight crewmember, flight attendant, flight instructor, or aircraft maintenance duties must receive it, and contract employees in those roles must also have received it before being used by the program manager.
Q2What must a program manager disclose to owners about its drug and alcohol testing program?
FAR 91.1047(c) requires disclosure of whether a company testing program exists, and if so, the substances tested, the categories of employees and types of tests (pre-employment, random, reasonable cause, post-accident, return-to-duty, follow-up), and how comparable the program is to the Part 120 federally mandated program.
Q3What is 'emergency maintenance' and what must the program manager do if unqualified personnel perform it?
Under FAR 91.1047(e), emergency maintenance is unscheduled work made necessary by a condition not discovered before departure. Per FAR 91.1047(d), the program manager must notify the FAA Drug Abatement Program Division in writing within 10 days, retain that record for two years, and have the aircraft reinspected by qualified maintenance personnel at the next airport where they are available.
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