Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing to add fentanyl/norfentanyl to the list of drugs screened for in the mandatory workplace drug and alcohol testing program. Published in the Federal Register, the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) said the additions of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, and norfentanyl, a metabolite of fentanyl, would harmonize the list with that of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) mandatory guidelines for federal workplace drug testing programs.
In the <a href="https://bit.ly/3UWzrha">NPRM</a>, DOT noted that it has discretion over certain aspects of the mandatory testing program, but HHS establishes the mandatory list of drugs. The department added that the move is in the interest of transportation safety, “given compelling information regarding the number of overdose deaths in the United States involving fentanyl.”
Noted in the proposal were HHS findings that fentanyl accounts for a large proportion of overdose deaths and is increasingly used as a standalone substance of abuse, not in conjunction with heroin and other substances as was common in the past.
While drug findings involving covered aviation workers are not common—in 2023, the FAA reported 0.881% positive results from random tests—it is typically more commonly discovered in Part 91 pilots, and an NTSB study reported increasing incidents of performance-impairing drugs found in accident pilots.
The study, “Safety Research Report: 2013–2017 Update to Drug Use Trends in Aviation,” found 28% of 952 pilots killed in crashes during that period tested positive for at least one “potential impairing” drug. Almost all—97%—involved general aviation pilots. That compared with 23% for pilots assessed between 1990 and 2012.
More recently, in a June 29 fatal crash of a Cessna 441 outside Warren, Ohio, a pilot who was listed as a passenger but situated in the right seat tested positive for fentanyl, according to multiple reports. That pilot had flown for both airlines and corporations. All six aboard the aircraft died. The investigation is still ongoing.
Comments on the proposal are due October 17.

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

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News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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