Photo - Captain Tom O’Riordan - Aer Lingus. (Further details shown below.)
Toxic Air on Planes Leads to Aerotoxic Syndrome - From an article by The Schmidt Firm, PLLC (Lawyers USA):
“Have you ever felt sick after a long flight? You probably blamed jet lag for your headache, nausea, coughing, and achy muscles — when you actually had Aerotoxic Syndrome from breathing toxic airplane cabin air. Unknown to most people, the air you breathe on most passenger airplanes comes off the jet engines. This toxic air is called “bleed air,” and it has been a standard design on jet airplanes since the 1960s.
Breathing Toxic Airplane Fumes Since the 1960s
Airlines have known for decades that “bleed air” can contain neurotoxic chemicals from the jet engine — but the air is still not filtered or monitored with air-quality sensors before it is circulated throughout the cabin and cockpit, where it is breathed by all aboard.”
“Symptoms of Single or Short-Term Fume Exposure
Blurry vision
Disorientation
Confusion
Fatigue
Memory loss
Shaking and tremors
Nausea / vomiting
Numbness
Loss of balance, vertigo
Loss of consciousness
Headache
Light-headedness
Dizziness
Feeling intoxicated
Breathing problems
Coughing
Shortness of breath
Chest tightness
Fast heart-rate or palpitations
Irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs
Severe Symptoms May Not Appear Right Away
The long-term signs & symptoms of being exposed to a fume event may not appear right away. It can take weeks for a person to develop side effects of breathing toxic air on airplanes, and the effects can last for years — especially in people who are very sensitive to toxic fumes.
Long-Term Risks of Breathing Toxic Air on Airplanes
Brain damage
Toxic encephalopathy
Memory loss
Forgetfulness
Lack of coordination
Severe migraine headaches
Chronic fatigue and exhaustion
Muscle weakness
Vision problems
Psychiatric symptoms
Depression, anxiety, irritability, etc.
Tremors (shaking hands)
Memory problems
Lung damage
Skin rashes, itching, etc.
Chemical sensitivity
Other systemic health problems”
”FAA Warning: Fume Event Symptoms May Last for Years
In 2009, the FAA published a Health Guide to Fume Events, warning that “neurological, psychiatric, respiratory, systemic, and dermal symptoms … may last for years after the exposure.” In 2010, the FAA revoked a pilot’s medical certificate due to “toxic encephalopathy” — brain damage from toxic chemicals.”
“How Toxic Air Gets On a Plane
Fresh air from outside the plane is sucked in through the jet engines. Because most jet airplanes are designed to have leaky seals, toxic fumes from the engine can contaminate the fresh air that is mixed 50/50 with the recirculated air goes into the cabin and cockpit.”
“Leaky Seals on Jet Airplanes
Jet engines get extremely hot, so they must use synthetic chemical oils that release toxic fumes at high temperatures. And because metal expands when it is hot, jet engines use “wet seals,” which are supposed to be a bit leaky when the engine is cold and tight when the engine is hot. Unfortunately, if the seals get too leaky, loose, or worn-out, toxic oil fumes mix with the air supply for the cockpit and cabin.”
“Pilots May Be Unable to Fly The Plane … or Land Safely
In some cases, the seals fail completely and visible fumes or smoke enters the cabin and cockpit. This scenario is extremely dangerous for everyone on the plane — particularly if the pilots pass out, become so incapacitated that they are unable to fly the plane, or can’t safely land.”
“Pilots Who Get Sick May Never Fly Again
Obviously there are immediate risks to everyone on board when a pilot has blurry vision, confusion, or a loss of consciousness mid-flight. But there are also serious long-term risks that can end a pilot’s career, like tremors (shaking hands), memory problems, and brain damage.”
“You May Not Smell or See Fume Events on Planes
Fume events can be odorless and invisible, so passengers and crew may not be aware of it. Also, the most common signs of exposure to a fume event (headaches and fatigue) are easily mistaken for jet lag.”
“How To Recognize The Smell of Toxic Fumes
In some cases, you might be able to smell a fume event. Oil fumes are often described as smelling like dirty socks, a gym locker, musty, moldy, or foul. Hydraulic fluid fumes may smell like strong chemicals.
Both oil and hydraulic fluid fumes can contain carbon monoxide, a gas that is odorless and highly toxic — especially on a plane, where the air has less oxygen than on the ground. Carbon monoxide poisoning can cause dizziness, fainting, headaches, slow thinking, or brain damage.”
“How Common Are Fume Events?
Hundreds of fume events occur every year, resulting in chemical exposures for tens of thousands of crew-members and passengers. In December 2020, the Los Angeles Times found safety reports for 362 fume events on airplanes in a 2-year period, from January 2018 to December 2019:
Nearly 400 passengers, flight attendants, and pilots needed medical attention
Pilots used emergency oxygen on 73 flights
48 pilots were unable to perform their duties”
https://www.schmidtlaw.com/aerotoxic-syndrome-lawsuit/
2010 - Toxic Cabin Air Litigation Continues to Recirculate Through the Courts
By David J. Harrington and Justin M. Schmidt
https://condonlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/harrington_air_space_2010.pdf
2011 NBC News Report:
‘A former flight attendant is believed to be the first person in the U.S. to settle a lawsuit against the Boeing Co. over what she claims is faulty aircraft design that allowed toxic fumes to reach the cabin, triggering tremors, memory loss and severe headaches.
The amount and other details of the settlement Wednesday between former American Airlines worker Terry Williams, a 42-year-old mother of two, and Boeing were not made public as a condition of the agreement.’
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna44777304
2020 - Business Insider:
“Delta flight attendants fight back against Boeing and a system they claim fed them 'toxic' air”
2020 - Politico Article:
‘In 2014, while flying a plane full of passengers for a subsidiary of United Express, pilot Richard Papp said he became so overwhelmed with nausea and dizziness that he “couldn’t think straight” and could barely fly safely, after inhaling what he said were noxious fumes permeating the cockpit.
"At the end of the day, we couldn’t even put a sentence together,” the U.S. pilot said in an interview with POLITICO.
Papp’s case isn’t an isolated one.’
https://www.politico.eu/article/bad-air-pilots-complain-unhealthy-cabin-fumes-worldwide/
Law 360 - 2023:
“The Boeing Co. and four British Airways passengers and flight attendants told a Washington federal court they have reached an undisclosed settlement in a product liability and personal injury lawsuit”
https://www.law360.com/employment-authority/amp/articles/1581284
In fact, in 2023 there were two separate cases dismissed in the USA involving two British Airways Boeing aircraft where undisclosed settlements were paid to the plaintiff’s who were injured during fume events on the two aircraft. The financial settlements made by Boeing came with a clause whereby the injured are not permitted to discuss the settlements or the circumstances which led to their injuries.
There have been many out-of-court settlements over the years. The injured parties have been silenced by ‘gagging orders’ as a condition of their payments.
Toxic Cabin air, the cause of neurological problems
JANUARY 27, 2023 BY CAPT. AMIT SINGH
‘Captain Andrew Myers, worked for JetBlue for 15 years but then in 2017 he became ill with a number of alarming health conditions, including toxic encephalopathy, which is a neurologic disorder, and neurocognitive disorder as well as visual difficulties, which could be permanent.The State of Oregon Workers’ Compensation Board in August 2020, ruled in favour of Myers, which in essence establishes the fact that Myers did indeed fall ill from toxic cabin air. This decision is significant because for years, the airline industry has denied the existence of what is known as aero-toxic syndrome, or exposure to toxic cabin air.
Myers will now be paid several years of compensation for loss of earnings and will also have his medical bills paid for. “It’s the first case in the US to establish that the fumes that injured Myers are dangerous, though Myers is far from alone in his injuries,” Glen Lasken, Myers’ attorney, told the Independent.
While the regulators and the manufacturers continue to defend their stand that the air quality was being maintained within the safety standards, there have been numerous crew and passengers reports of developing sickness inflight or after completion of the flight. That Boeing is well-aware of the toxicity of bleed air is indisputable. It was sued in court in the USA by a flight attendant, Terry Williams, and settled out of court in 2010.
Cabin air quality
The day before the incident, flight attendants and customers on the airplane Captain Myers was scheduled to fly, reported a strong foul odor in the cabin while descending for landing. A fume event was written up for maintenance to resolve.
The next day before take-off, Captain Myers and his First Officer, Dirk Murray, attempted to isolate the source of the fumes by performing three engine runs. During the first run, Captain Myers smelled the foul odor throughout the plane, but the First Officer, who remained in the cockpit, did not. During the second engine run, both smelled a very apparent, choking, burning odor like dirty socks or an oily smell.
Both immediately developed headaches, began coughing and had to leave the airplane to get fresh air. Captain Myers fell down on the jetway and a mechanic ran up the stairs to the plane saying, “Oh my God. There’s a haze in here.”
Captain Myers and the First Officer re-entered the plane for the third engine run with the odor still strong. Captain Myers was coughing, his eyes stung and watered, the right side of his body shook with tremors, and he had mild shortness of breath, headache and congestion. He also had some numbness in his forearm and hand that resolved after a couple of days.
Aero-Toxic Syndrome
Aerotoxic syndrome is the organophosphate poisoning resulting from exposure to bleed air. The most common but debilitating symptoms include chronic fatigue, severe headaches, cognitive dysfunction, paraesthesia, ataxia and mood-swings (Winder, C. and Balouet, J.-C. Aerotoxic syndrome). These are all, individually or collectively, enough to ground a pilot on the spot, and render cabin crew unfit for further duty.
Long-term–low-level (LTLL) contamination, such as that to which aircrew are exposed, has been shown to be more injurious than short-term acute exposure. Aircrew breathe the low-level toxicity every minute of their working days. When an aircraft lands the passengers disembark, but the crew turn around and do it all over again, time and time again. Perhaps there has too much emphasis on fume events, while the real damage is being done by LTLL.
Remedial treatment starts with removal from the toxic environment. For aircrew, this involves cessation of employment. The longer this is delayed the more intense the affliction and the more difficult the recovery. In a lot of cases, where brain damage has been allowed to go too far, full recovery is impossible. A striking observation is the connexion between exposure and symptom onset (Winder, C. and Balouet, J.-C. Aerotoxic syndrome). The reverse is also striking, namely that recovery, sometimes only partial, is possible only in the absence of further exposure. This should not have come as a surprise to the industry. The bleed air system for passenger airliners was taken from the military aviation industry. In the 1950s United States Air Force, pilots were complaining of a mysterious illness, which was traced to their exposure to the oil contamination of the bleed air that heated and pressurized their fighters, bombers and transport aircraft.
HEPA filters are inadequate protection
The recirculated air is often filtered using a high efficiency particulate air filter (HEPA) which removes microorganisms and other particulate contaminants but does not remove other contaminants such as volatile organic compounds (Judith Anderson & Dr. Nlichaelis testimony; Exs. 13 9-155 & 141-4 ). Apart from noticeable fume events, pilots are chronically exposed to engine vapors that continuously leak through the oil seals in tiny amounts because the use of pressurized air to both seal the jet engine’s bearing chamber and to provide ventilation for the cabin guarantees that fugitive low-level oil emissions will enter the breathing air supply during normal engine operations (Judith Anderson & Dr. Michaelis testimony; Ex. 142, pages 3 & 5).’
https://safetymatters.co.in/2023/01/27/toxic-cabin-air-the-cause-of-neurological-problems/?amp
March 2024 -
We were recently made aware of the poisoning of Captain Tom O’Riordan from Aer Lingus (shown in the photo above).
“On June 5th 2023, I was poisoned by toxic air fumes whilst operating EI-DEN from LHR to DUB following which I was taken by ambulance to hospital and admitted for 5 days. I continue to live with serious symptoms related to this incident.”
The same aircraft responsible for the fumes and subsequent injury to Captain O’Riordan (Registration EI-DEN an Airbus A320) had another fume event on 10th March 2024 which led to more crew members being taken to hospital:
Please note the comment from Aer Lingus:
‘UPDATE Aer Lingus sent a statement to AIRLIVE:
Yesterday, Aer Lingus flight EI166 to London Heathrow experienced a technical issue and returned to Dublin Airport, landing normally. No medical treatment was required for crew following assessment. Aer Lingus re-accommodated all passengers yesterday.’
‘No medical treatment was required’!!!- How would Healthcare Professionals know if treatment was required or not -and what the possible treatments could be, let alone the possible health outcomes?
Healthcare Professionals including A&E Doctors & Nurses and GP’s, have no knowledge of this type of poisoning due to the fact that they have not been informed.
Aerotoxic Syndrome has still not been officially recognised with ICD-10 code due to the collusion of Governments and the Aviation Industry (including the CAA and FAA) over many years to keep this ‘dirty little secret’ hidden away:
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