FAA Title 14 CFR 120.39 – Testing for Alcohol

As the DOM for a 135 operator, how many times has one of your aircraft flown overseas and had “unscheduled” maintenance required or a discrepancy not discovered prior to departure to a destination? I’m sure you’re counting quite a bit and thinking, Gulfstream or Bombardier, or even Dassault Falcon service centers took care of the discrepancies in France, England, Germany, etc. You assured the return to service was correct and even gave the service center a one-time RII approval.

Scenario 1:

The aircraft continues to fly around Europe and or even to the Middle East and then finally returns to the U.S., and drops off passengers in Teterboro, N.J. Its next flight is the following day and it goes on to Florida and then after a couple of days it finally arrives at its home base (for this example we will use Atlanta).

Did you know that per 14 CFR 120.39, you are in violation? And not just once, but three times! Have I got your attention yet? This regulation is one that is just waiting for an FAA audit to find, because it is a highly missed regulation by DOMs. If you are one that knows this, then I commend you for staying on top of your operation.

You see, foreign repair stations are not required to have drug and alcohol programs, and usually don’t. Even some foreign OEM service centers don’t have them.

The regulation 120.39 states as follows starting with “C”:

(c) If a certificate holder conducts an on-demand operation into an airport at which no maintenance providers are available that are subject to the requirements of subpart F of this part and emergency maintenance is required, the certificate holder may use individuals not meeting the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section to provide such emergency maintenance under both of the following conditions:

(1) The certificate holder must give written notification of the emergency maintenance to the Drug and Abatement Program Division, AMM-800, 800 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, D.C., 20591, within 10 days after being provided same in accordance with this paragraph. A certificate holder must retain copies of all such written notification for two years.

(2) The aircraft must be reinspected by maintenance personnel who meet the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section when the aircraft is next at an airport where such maintenance personnel are available.

 (d) 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.

Let’s go back to the violations from scenario one: Prior to the aircraft departing Teterboro, an inspection by a technician with an approved drug and alcohol program, or a repair station needed to perform an inspection of the work performed you had done overseas. A logbook entry would be required and then the aircraft can continue.

I have had numerous discussions about this with the FAA and even had some audits while I was the DOM for a 135 operation out of Teterboro. We usually flew into home base from trips overseas, so the required inspections were made during our post flights and properly documented. But on occasion, I would have to coordinate with a maintenance facility to perform the required inspection upon landing in the U.S. from an overseas trip with maintenance performed by the OEM repair station while abroad.

The reporting to the drug abatement department is just a formality and I never heard back from any of my reports sent to them. These are good to include as part of your monthly continuing analysis and surveillance (CASS) program meeting.

This scenario could, in fact, happen in remote parts of the U.S. where there sometimes isn’t a repair station, but most likely if the discrepancy was a hard grounding item, an OEM or repair station mobile unit is usually just hours away.

This FAR 120 is commonly not read enough, and yet holds some very important regulations for Part 119 certificate holder authorized to conduct operations under Part 121 or Part 135 or operators under 91.147 of this chapter and safety sensitive employees working for145 repair stations.

With a lot of maintenance being purposely performed abroad because of labor being less than here in the U.S., the balance of safety is sometimes tipped and should never be compromised by anyone from your organization. I know how the human factors issue is sometimes stretched by the money counters, but knowing this regulation can help you educate the ones responsible in finance that reinspecting work being performed by personnel not on a approved drug and alcohol program can be very expensive if fines are ever assessed because of failing to reinspect and the cost of reinspections themselves. 

There is so much information to know, understand, communicate and disseminate as a DOM that it sometimes keeps you up at night. As you read my articles that are all true episodes “from the trenches,” I hope I will help you, or in some instances, just refresh your memory.

I encourage you to read 14 CFR 120 and understand how it affects your operation in particular. If by reading it, you find yourself saying, “ I didn’t know that,” then this article has helped you in some way.

Phillip Esparza owns and operates Semper Fi Aviation out of Fort Worth, Texas.  Esparza served with the USMC as a crew chief on helicopters. He has been active in aviation for 35 years and holds an FAA A&P, IA and private pilot’s license and serves as the Fort Worth area designated maintenance examiner (DME). He has held positions with Aerospatiale helicopter  Corp. (now American Eurocopter) as a field service representative, and with Bombardier Business Aircraft as an international field service representative covering Mexico and Central America. He worked with Dallas Airmotive as an international engine maintenance sales representative for Latin America. He held the position of flight line technician as well as field service working on F-16s in the UAE with Lockheed Martin. Phillip has held positions as general manager for a large 145 repair station in Fort Worth, and director of maintenance for Polaris Aviation Solutions based in Teterboro, NJ. He has worked globally and has extensive knowledge of International logistics, maintenance practices and interior and completion projects. He currently is a consultant for FAA Part 145, 125, and 135 operations, aircraft completions, maintenance, interior and international maintenance operations. Visit his website at www.semperfiaviation.com