PRD Transition: Requesting a Drug & Alcohol History Check

Under the Pilot Records Information Act (PRIA), air carriers were required to send a 5-Year Drug & Alcohol History Check to other air carriers who employed the pilot-applicant as a pilot. If a pilot worked for another company as a safety-sensitive employee in a non-pilot role, then the operator was required to request a 2-Year Drug & Alcohol History Check.  

In June 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published the Pilot Records Database (PRD) Final Rule, which states: “Reviewing entities must also evaluate non-FAA records that the FAA includes in the PRD. Such records consist of an individual's pre-employment drug and alcohol testing history and other U.S. Department of Transportation drug and alcohol testing, including verified positive drug test results, alcohol misuse violations, including confirmed alcohol results of 0.04 or greater, and refusals to submit to drug or alcohol testing.” 

While some drug and alcohol testing records, such as those mentioned above, are to be found in the PRD, others are not. The FAA states in its most recent PRIA-PRD Advisory Circular (AC), 120-68J, that operators will still need to request drug and alcohol testing records from previous employers. However, the AC did not specify the timeframe for that check.  

When consulted on this, the FAA informed our team that drug and alcohol testing records should be requested per 49 CFR Part 40.25. This regulation states: “You must request the information listed in this paragraph (b) from DOT-regulated employers who have employed the employee during any period during the two years before the date of the employee's application or transfer." If a company’s policy states they will conduct a drug and alcohol history records check that goes back further than two years, they can still request records for that timeframe.  

Upon receiving this information, our team has retired PRIA form 8060-12 and created a Drug & Alcohol History Records Check, based on the recommended form produced by the FAA.  

This form can be downloaded here.

NATA CS provides support to operators who are required to request records on pilot applicants with the following:  

• PRD records retrieval 
• PRD records storage 
• PRD records entry 
• Drug & Alcohol History Check  
• National Driver Register (NDR) Check  

For more information on how your operation can benefit from our expertise, click here.