Risks for virus still lurk on airplanes
The claim: “I don’t think the risk on an airplane is any greater risk than anywhere else, and in fact, you just look at the layered approach that we use. It’s as safe an environment as you’re going to find.” — Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines.
Kelly made the comment in a May TV interview.
PolitiFact rating: Mostly False. Research shows that airplanes’ strong ventilation systems do filter out virus particles. However, studies also indicate that some level of risk regarding the transmission of an infectious disease persists, particularly if you are seated near a contagious person. And passengers’ ability to take steps to mitigate that risk is limited.
Discussion: Asked for evidence to back up Kelly’s claim, a company spokesperson pointed to this statement — the Southwest Promise — that outlines steps taken by the airline to protect employees and customers from COVID-19. The spokesperson also said all of Southwest’s flights are equipped with HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filters, which also are used in hospitals to provide patients with clean air.
As with any setting that holds many people at the same time, there is a risk of virus transmission through the air as well as from hightouch surfaces. On an airplane, that could be a bathroom door handle. And it is easy to picture how this risk can be amplified on a long flight with other travelers.
Case studies have shown that disease transmission occurs on flights. In 2003, for instance, 16 people tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or
SARS, a disease caused by a coronavirus closely related to the new virus, after flying on a plane with a symptomatic passenger. The H1N1 virus, or swine flu, has also been documented as having spread between plane passengers. COVID-specific research is ongoing.
Qingyan Chen, a Purdue University mechanical engineering professor who led Federal Aviation Administration-sponsored research examining infectious disease transmission on airplanes, said his team focused on certain specific ways an illness could spread on an aircraft: by direct contact with a sick person and by inhaling large droplets or aerosols expelled from a sick person.
Large droplets are caused by forcing air out of your mouth, such as by breathing, talking, coughing or sneezing. A lot of the droplets are too large to stay airborne long, while others are very small and can stay airborne for hours. The small droplets are called aerosols.
Though the air in an airplane is highly circulated, Chen said aerosols can still hang in the air for about three to four minutes before being sucked up by the ventilation system.
Aerosols “can be really dangerous. They have the highest risk,” Chen said. “The small droplets can get to the seven rows around a sick passenger within four minutes.” However, Chen was quick to point out that his studies were focused on other airborne diseases, such as flu, tuberculosis and SARS.
Chen said he thought air travel could be reasonably safe as long as every passenger and crew member wore a mask. He also suggested that passengers wipe down the surfaces around them and wash their hands but said there would still be a risk.
Airlines maintain that there is little evidence that COVID-19 transmission has occurred on planes and that their ventilation systems are 99.9 percent effective at filtering out microscopic particles. There also are studies that suggest that aerosols have a more limited
reach, just two seats laterally and one row in front of and one row behind an infectious passenger.
Airlines for America, a U.S.-focused industry trade group, said the industry is “taking substantial, proactive steps to protect passengers and employees,” including requiring that passengers and employees wear masks, implementing intensive cleaning protocols and changing policies such as the boarding of passengers from back to front and the reduced frequency of food and beverage services. (Kelly is on Airlines for America’s board of directors.)
But is that enough to justify Kelly’s statement that airplanes are as safe as just about any other environment? Not really.
The key difference is that you are able to make decisions about how much space to put between yourself and other people in almost all other locations, said Karen Hoffmann, the immediate past president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
Delta Air Lines has started blocking out middle seats. Some airlines are blocking seats near where the flight attendants sit. United Airliners is not allowing customers to select seats next to each other or the middle seats. Both Southwest and JetBlue Airways have said they will limit the number of passengers to ensure space between them.
And while all major U.S. airlines have announced increased efforts to disinfect and sanitize planes and eliminate or reduce food and beverage service, there is still a danger.
“Any time you are removing your mask or putting anything in your mouth, the risk of transmitting or being exposed to the virus will be higher,” wrote Rachel Vreeman, director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine.