[Greg McDonald]

Pilots and airport staff will be tested for illegal drugs when new safety regulations are brought in this month.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority will soon be subjecting pilots to random drug tests, as well as drug and alcohol tests for "safety-sensitive personnel" including air traffic controllers and baggage handlers.

Other occupations to face scrutiny include flight attendants, aircraft engineers, re-fuellers, flight controllers and ground staff.

"It's been in the pipeline for several years," the Sydney Morning Herald reported CASA spokesman Peter Gibson as saying.

"The scope is quite intentionally fairly wide to include anybody who could have a safety impact on the aircraft."

The current system tests only pilots for alcohol, with a maximum BAC reading of .02 allowed through random breath testing.

Any airport employee found to break .02 or test positive to illegal drugs will now be stood down immediately.

They must undergo a doctor's assessment and enter rehabilitation if they are deemed to have a dependence problem and also face fines of up to $5500.

The scheme was introduced in the final Howard budget after cannabis and smoking utensils were found in the car of a pilot involved in a fatal plane crash on Hamilton Island in 2002.

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