Photo - From a Fox News (USA) Video which can be viewed here:
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6379548686112
Closing statement of the Fox News video regarding a congressional bill for a solution - ‘but so far that bill is grounded on the congressional runway.’
We highlighted last year ‘The Safe Air on Aircraft Act’, ongoing in the USA and how it had taken five years to get to the second phase with Congressman Garamendi’s speech:
‘“The Airline Industry and Manufacturers fought every step of the way.”
“It’s the best we could do after five years of effort.”
And…..
“An intermediate step we tried to get in the legislation but were unsuccessful about it, is to put in place air quality monitoring systems that would be monitoring the air on an ongoing basis, moment by moment while that airplane was in the sky.
We were unable to get that in because of the opposition of the airline industry and the manufacturers.
But the problem is real, the problem is very, very real for passengers and even more so for the cabin crews.”
https://www.change.org/p/stop-contaminated-cabin-air-in-aircraft/u/32631439?recently_published=true
As most of us know, the Aerotoxic (Contaminated Air in Aircraft) issue is grounded on every political runway worldwide.
Many of our governments, large investment companies ie. Black Rock, Vanguard, Capital Research Global Investors etc., and wealthy, influential individuals have huge investments in the aviation industry.
The video from Fox News (above) came as a result of the Wall Street Journal article mentioned which was published on 13th September 2025, written by Benjamin Katz, John West, Andrew Tangel and Peter Champelli:
‘Toxic Fumes Are Leaking Into Airplanes, Sickening Crews and Passengers
Doctors compare brain effects to concussions in NFL players. A Wall Street Journal investigation shows the problem is getting worse and not much is being done about it
“Do you smell that?” Florence Chesson was asked by a fellow JetBlue flight attendant as they prepared for landing in Puerto Rico.
Chesson, as trained, inhaled a lungful of air through her nostrils in a single deep breath. “It smells like dirty feet,” she told her colleague.
Instantly, she started to feel like she had been drugged, Chesson said in an interview.
About an hour later, the aircraft had landed, loaded a fresh group of passengers and was back in the sky returning to Boston. As Chesson wrapped up the drinks service, a colleague rushed past to the back of the plane, her hands around her throat, complaining she was struggling to breathe before starting to vomit. Another was given emergency oxygen.
When the flight landed, the two cabin crew were taken to a hospital in an ambulance, one on a stretcher.
Chesson, her uniform and hair soaked in sweat and with an overpowering metallic taste in her mouth, went to meet her supervisors. “I felt like I was talking gibberish,” she recalled. “I remember being very repetitive, saying ‘What just happened to me? What just happened to me?’”
After months of worsening symptoms, Chesson was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and permanent damage to her peripheral nervous system caused by the fumes she inhaled. Her doctor, Robert Kaniecki, a neurologist and consultant to the Pittsburgh Steelers, said in an interview that the effects on her brain were akin to a chemical concussion and “extraordinarily similar” to those of a National Football League line backer after a brutal hit. “It’s impossible not to draw that conclusion,” he said.
Kaniecki said he has treated about a dozen pilots and over 100 flight attendants for brain injuries after exposure to fumes on aircraft over the last 20 years. Another was a passenger, a frequent flier with Delta’s top-tier rewards status who was injured in 2023.
Chesson’s experience is one dramatic instance among thousands of so-called fume events reported to the Federal Aviation Administration since 2010, in which toxic fumes from a jet’s engines leak unfiltered into the cockpit or cabin. The leaks occur due to a design element in which air you breathe on an aircraft is pulled through the engine. The system, known as “bleed air,” has been featured in almost every modern commercial jetliner except Boeing’s 787.
The rate of incidents is accelerating in recent years, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found, driven in large part by leaks on Airbus’s bestselling A320 family of jets—the aircraft Chesson was flying.
The Journal’s reporting—based on a review of more than one million FAA and National Aeronautics and Space Administration reports, thousands of pages of documents and research papers and more than 100 interviews—shows that aircraft manufacturers and their airline customers have played down health risks, successfully lobbied against safety measures, and made cost-saving changes that increased the risks to crew and passengers.
The fumes—sometimes described as smelling of “wet dog,” “Cheetos” or “nail polish”—have led to emergency landings, sickened passengers and affected pilots’ vision and reaction times mid-flight, according to official reports.
Most odours in aircraft aren’t toxic, and neither are all vapours. The effects are often fleeting, mild or present no symptoms.
But they can also be longer-lasting and severe, according to doctors, medical records and affected crew members.
The cause of fume events isn’t a mystery. Airbus and Boeing, the two biggest aircraft manufacturers, have acknowledged that malfunctions can lead to oil and hydraulic fluid leaking into the engines or power units and vaporizing at extreme heat. This results in the release of unknown quantities of neurotoxins, carbon monoxide and other chemicals into the air.
There are various ways bleed air can become contaminated. Here is one of the most common:
In a February incident captured on video by several passengers, enough oil entered the bleed air supply of a Boeing 717 that thick plumes of smoke started piling through the vents mid-flight. “Ladies and gentlemen, please breathe through your clothing, stay low,” the Delta Air Lines flight attendant told passengers, some of whom had noticed a strange smell during take-off.
Meanwhile pilots had donned oxygen masks, declared an emergency and were turning back to Atlanta, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report. An inspection found the right engine’s oil reservoir was nearly empty, with enough oil leaking into the bleed air supply to fill the aircraft with white smoke. A Delta spokesman said the company was cooperating with a continuing NTSB review.
This incident was somewhat unusual in that most fume events don’t produce smoke.
Manufacturers, regulators and airlines have said these types of incidents are too infrequent, levels of contamination too low and scientific research on lasting health risks too inconclusive to warrant a comprehensive fix. In some cases, they have attributed reported health-effects from fume exposure to factors including hyperventilation, jet lag, psychological stress, mass hysteria and malingering.
Internally, industry staffers have flagged their own fears about the toxic makeup of engine oils.
In a 2017 internal email, excerpts of which were produced in a lawsuit, Boeing quality inspector Steven Reiman wrote:
He raised concerns that the public might discover that oil leaks could make “aircrew sick to the point of death.”
Airbus, Boeing, the FAA and its European counterpart—the European Union Aviation Safety Agency—declined to make representatives available to interview for this story.’
©️Wall Street Journal
Story continues in the link:
https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/air-travel-toxic-fumes-64839d6e
Also here:
In response to the WSJ article, numerous Members of Congress in the USA signed a letter on 25th September to Bryan Bedford, the current administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA):
(If the link fails- go to the Home Page as suggested and use the menu symbol at the top right hand corner. You will see a link to the Congress Members letter to the FAA at the bottom of the page.)
Another article ‘How the Journal Analyzed More Than One Million FAA Reports’ - by John West and Benjamin Katz was published in the WSJ the same day:
‘Reporters used machine learning algorithms and large language models to perform an analysis of fume-event reports over the last 15 years.
The Federal Aviation Administration, airplane manufacturers and airlines don’t release a public accounting of how often engine fumes leak into airplane cabins. So The Wall Street Journal conducted its own.’
©️The Wall Street Journal
And this article was published on 14th September:
https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/what-you-need-to-know-about-fume-events-on-airplanes-e79138c6
The European Cabin Crew Association (EurECCA) posted this in response to the WSJ article on LinkedIn:
Last week, Benjamin Katz of the Wall Street Journal, published another article on the subject:
Delta Replaces Engine Units in Effort to Address Toxic-Fume Surge on Planes
Another report about Delta Airlines from CBS News:
‘Delta Air Lines said it is replacing auxiliary power units (APUs), a type of engine, on its Airbus aircraft to address toxic fume incidents that can harm airline crew and passengers.
The airline confirmed to CBS News Thursday that its replacing engines on more than 300 of its A320s in an initiative that began in 2022. The airline did not comment on the cost of the undertaking, which is more than 90% complete.’
©️CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/delta-engines-airbus-toxic-fumes/
The UK’s Daily Mail were very direct about Delta’s actions:
‘Delta's secret scheme to replace engines on hundreds of planes after toxic fumes leaked into cabins and BRAIN DAMAGED occupants’
©️Daily Mail
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15133197/Delta-replace-engines-planes-toxic-fumes.html
So what are all the other airlines who operate Airbus aircraft doing?
Have they all secretly replaced the APU’s or are they in the process of doing so?
Or will they just continue poisoning people with toxic fumes?
What do the CAA, FAA and EASA have to say on the subject?
The silence from the regulators is deafening.
However, as most of us know, the APU is only one part of the problem.
The major part of the problem is the engines under the wings from which air is bled off for the Environmental Control System (ECS) which provides the breathing air onboard without it first being filtered.
This article is from the Aviation Week in 2020 which explains the retro-fit Airbus are working on. It’s timely and important that this is shared widely as it’s probably another secret that Airbus and the Aviation Industry don’t want in the public domain:
Airbus, Operators Study On-Aircraft Fume Anomalies
- by Sean Broderick - August 14, 2020
‘Airbus plans to use Project Fresh to centralize analysis of related incidents. It also plans to roll out “an enhanced ECS filtration system” that will include a retrofit option, and it has published an “information paper” that provides “all the known aspects of fumes and smoke events,” the AAIB said.
British Airways has put a post-fumes maintenance procedure in place and will consider installing the new Airbus ECS system when it is available.’
©️Aviation News Network
https://aviationweek.com/mro/safety-ops-regulation/airbus-operators-study-aircraft-fume-anomalies
- And all of this is happening for a problem which the the aviation industry, it’s so called ‘regulators’ as well as our Governments have denied for decades. -
- They have stated on numerous occasions, the air inside aircraft is better than than that found hospitals, kindergartens and homes.
They also state that long term health issues are ‘very unlikely.’
CAA: ‘It is acknowledged that people who experience a fume event (of any type) may report symptoms such as irritation to the eyes, nose and throat. These symptoms usually resolve once the fumes or smell have disappeared. Long term ill health due to any toxic effect from cabin air is understood to be very unlikely, although such a link cannot be ruled out.*’
*No one has thought it pertinent to conduct the epidemiological research required to fully establish that link - leaving victims of chronic poisoning unable to receive the appropriate support and care they need.
Note: ‘Nocebo Effect’ as an explanation for victims developing acute (immediate) or chronic (long-term) injuries via psychological mechanisms following fume events has been removed from the CAA website due to there being no scientific evidence whatsoever to back up the pseudoscientific theory they had previously used.
The Case of Captain Tom O’Riordan vs Aer Lingus:
Another pilot who has suffered both the acute and chronic health effects following a fume event in June 2023 and whose career and life have been destroyed because of it, is Captain Tom O’Riordan who was employed by Aer Lingus:
News Report from June 2024:
‘Aer Lingus is to be called into the Dáil to address a “serious public danger issue” after one of its pilots allegedly suffered toxic fume poisoning.
‘On June 5, 2023, Captain Tom O’Riordan claimed that he suffered poisoning from fumes on an Aer Lingus flight which was descending into Dublin Airport.
"I along with a number of my colleagues suffer from long-term effects of such poisoning, which prohibit the ability to work and seriously curtail quality of life. Such effects also reduce life longevity,” Mr O’Riordan said.
The airline pilot claimed that there has been 38 such toxic fume poisoning incidents recorded by Aer Lingus between January 2023 and January 2024, equating to 7,500 passengers who may have been affected.
He described this as a “public danger issue” stressing that both crew and passengers “may have experienced toxic fume exposure without their knowledge”.
His public petition was read out and discussed today at the Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen.
This committee, which meets in Leinster House, receives and processes public petitions submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Referring to his own incident, Mr O’Riordan, who was not present, said in his petition that Aer Lingus failed to locate the source of air fumes.
"The aircraft was released for service in an unsafe state putting both crew and public at risk,” he claimed.
He also said that the Department of Transport and the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) failed to classify his incident as “serious”.
They have yet to confirm if all of the incidents last year were investigated as well as the outcome of each incident, Mr O’Riordan said.’
©️Irish Independent
Read the rest of the news report here:
This was posted on LinkedIn by Tom O’Riordan’s Barrister, David Byrnes last month:
‘Aviation safety regulators have taken a jet-lagged approach to toxic fume events.
Cabin air quality sensors are not even a basic regulatory requirement. Fume events are not uncommon (per FAA).
It pose a different dimension to the fear of flying. Pilot impairment poses an obvious risk of disaster.
In July 2025, Irish Airline Pilots’ Association stated cabin fume events “remain a matter of increasing concern in commercial aviation” and it is “not a localised issue, but a global one”.
In 2022, the European Transport Workers’ Federation published measures deemed crucial to minimising the impact of toxic fume events when the air ventilation supply on commercial aircraft gets contaminated with noticeable amounts of heated engine oil and hydraulic fluid fumes: https://lnkd.in/eDyKU4ga
A University of Stirling report (2023) shows the health consequences of exposure to toxic cabin fumes: https://lnkd.in/envSrM3W
A JetBlue pilot’ workers compensation case succeeded in 2020 following a career ending toxic fume event: https://lnkd.in/es5P75mc
BA and Aer Lingus (subsidiaries of the British-Spanish multinational airline giant IAG) have had a number of reported fume events.
This fume event on a British Airways (last Saturday) diverted into Venice shows rescurers wearing hazmat suits and oxygen masks.
Aer Lingus Airbus (EI-DEJ) suffered a fume event on descent into Dublin Airport on 24.04.2024. The Air Accident Unit (Department of Transport) report (14.08.2025) determined contamination of the aircraft’s air conditioning system due to oil from an external oil leak at the Auxiliary Power Unit being ingested by the APU’s load compressor as the probable cause: https://lnkd.in/eJrQGdfA
A separate AAIU investigation into another Aer Lingus Airbus (EI-DEN) relating to fumes reported on a 26.05.2024 flight into Dublin is ongoing.
Captain Tom O’Riordan reported a fume event while flying EI-DEN into Dublin Airport on 05.06.2023 (which AAIU did not investigate).
I will be presenting this pilot’s whistleblower penalisation case at the WRC commencing 29.09.2025: https://lnkd.in/eyj3ra3n ‘
Here are two news reports from the Irish Times who are following the case:
And this is the most recent from Friday 3rd October 2025:
‘Jet repair report posted online ‘not intended for public’, says Aer Lingus safety chief
Dismissed pilot’s lawyer says he believed safety issues were ‘whitewashed’ and ‘covered over’ by airline
The head of safety at Aer Lingus has told a tribunal an engine repair report posted online by a whistleblower pilot in the wake of an alleged toxic fume leak on a jet was “not intended for public consumption”.
Conor Nolan, director of safety and security at the airline was under cross-examination for a second day on Friday at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The airline is defending statutory complaints alleging penalisation under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Unfair Dismissals Act by pilot, Tom O’Riordan.
The airline contends Mr O’Riordan, who had 13,000 hours’ command experience on heavy jets when he was dismissed in September 2024, “defamed” the airline on social media while off work sick in the wake of an incident on board an empty passenger jet the summer before.
Mr O’Riordan’s lawyer says the pilot believed safety issues were being “whitewashed” and “covered over” by Aer Lingus and that he was entitled to take to social media out of concern for public safety.
Mr Nolan said the number one engine on an Airbus A320 jet, EI-DEN – referred to in the proceedings as “Delta Echo November” – was removed and sent to a Madrid workshop following a reported fume leak on June 5th, 2023, during an empty repositioning flight into Dublin Airport, with Mr O’Riordan in command.
Mr O’Riordan’s position is that he was poisoned by toxic fumes during the incident.
A report on the repairs to the engine dated October 24th, 2023 – referred to as the “Iberia report” – was opened to the hearing on Friday.
David Byrnes BL, for the complaiant the report noted “traces of oil … around the rear area of the fan frame” of a compressor and put it to Mr Nolan that it was “the same compressor that’s used to pressurise the cabin”.
“In a very general sense. No one’s disputing there was a leak of oil and it created a smell,” Mr Nolan said.
Mr Byrnes asked Mr Nolan whether he had complained to the company that his personal reputation was damaged by Mr O’Riordan’s social media posts.
“No,” the witness said.
And why not?” counsel asked.
“This matter has taken up so much of my time that would be better devoted to other management duties in my portfolio. I was aware the posting of internal material was being addressed through the appropriate channels,” Mr Nolan said.
“There’s no evidence of any damage to your reputation, is there?”
“No,” Mr Nolan said.
Asked what damage Mr O’Riordan had done to Aer Lingus’s reputation, Mr Nolan said: “The publication of confidential internal safety engineering and operational data, viewed out of context by unqualified members of the public, certainly has the potential to damage the reputation of the organisation and trust in our brand.
He said he was referring to the report on the repairs to the engine removed from the jet Mr O’Riordan had been flying.
In the wrong hands, it could be misconstrued as presenting some sort of safety risk,” the witness said. “This is a highly technical document that’s not intended for public consumption ... there’s potential it could be misconstrued by members of the public, and specifically the concern I would have would be that customers might see this,” he said.
“Isn’t the customer entitled to know whether there’s a seal in a compressor that’s defective and that they’re putting themselves at risk of exposure to fumes in the cabin?” counsel asked.
“The customer is clearly entitled to expect the aircraft is airworthy,” Mr Nolan said.
“Are they entitled to know what risk there is of exposure to fumes coming into the plane from defective seals, worn seals with oil leaks – isn’t a customer entitled to know that, so they can decide themselves?” Mr Byrnes continued.
“No,” Mr Nolan said.
“They’re not?” counsel said.
No,” the witness said.
Adjudication officer Aideen Collard has adjourned the case to January 2026.
Mr Byrnes is instructed by solicitor Setanta Landers in the case. Tom Mallon BL is for the airline, instructed by Katie Rooney of Arthur Cox.’
©️The Irish Times.
Here are three excellent recent articles from Bearnairdine Beaumont (former Lufthansa Purser and victim of onboard poisoning):
UNFILTERED Breathed In
Fumes in Aircraft can cause Toxic Encephalopathy:
Death of a Flight Attendant:
The document mentioned in the above article ‘Death of a Flight Attendant’ produced by Prof. Dr Dieter Scholz, MSME - Hamburg University of Applied Sciences can be viewed in its entirety here:
‘Technical Analysis of the Accident: Swiss Flight LX1885 with an Airbus A220 – From Uncontained Engine Failure via Smoke on Board, A Dead Flight Attendant to Alleged Cover Up at Austrian's Federal Safety Investigation Authority (SUB)’
©️ Prof Dr Dieter Scholz, MSME - HAW Hamburg
https://www.unfiltered.vip/uploads/6/0/3/8/6038702/as_aero_pos_dlrk2025_swiss_lx1885_2025-09-23.pdf
From another Substack called Unbekoming:
Germanwings Flight 9525: The Convenient Dead
An interview with author Sam Thorne about systemic failures and individual blame:
For more information on Aerotoxicity and much more, please visit:
In addition, these support websites are available:
France:
AVSA -
https://www.syndrome-aerotoxique.com/
Netherlands -
https://flyaware.nl/en/stichting-fly-aware-2/
United Kingdom -
Global Cabin Air Quality Executive:
Thank you for your continued support and for sharing this petition with family, friends and associates.
It’s very much appreciated.