Do EasyJet’s new f ilters show ‘toxic air’ IS a problem?
EASYJET is to fit filters to its cabin air systems to stop toxic fumes reaching passengers, cabin crew and pilots.
It is the first time the aviation industry has admitted health concerns about so-called ‘aerotoxic syndrome’.
The condition is feared to be responsible for the deaths of pilots and crew and hundreds of incidents in which pilots have fallen ill, sometimes at the controls.
EasyJet said health concerns had led it to work with a commercial supplier, Pall Aerospace, to ‘develop and design a new cabin air filtration system’ for testing on its aircraft next year.
Tristan Loraine, a former British Airways captain who claims toxic cabin air forced him from his job, said: ‘This is the first public acknowledgment by an airline of a problem which this industry, including my own airline, has spent decades denying. I congratulate easyJet for having the vision and courage which no other airline had.’
Alex Flynn, of the Unite union, which represents cabin crew, told The Sunday Times the easyJet move was ‘highly significant and welcome’. He said Unite was involved in about 100 UK civil court actions for death and injury allegedly caused by cabin air, a far higher number than previously reported.
During high-altitude flight the atmosphere is too thin to breathe so compressed air, or ‘bleed air’, is drawn from the plane’s engines and directed into the passenger cabin and cockpit. It is cooled but not filtered.
Faults in engine seals can contaminate it with engine oil, hydraulic fluids and lubricants. Some air is then recirculated through a filter, but a typical aircraft cabin consists of half recirculated filtered air and half unfiltered bleed air. The new ‘total filtration’ sys- tem being tested by easyJet will filter the bleed air as well. It also includes a contamination detector.
EasyJet said it was not taking a position on aerotoxic syndrome, which ‘remains an area of scientific uncertainty’.
Last October, crew members on a BA flight from San Francisco to London were left ‘spaced out’ and ‘vomiting’ after what the captain described as ‘toxic fumes’ leaked into the cabin.
Fatalities linked to cabin fumes include Matt Bass, a BA flight attendant who died in 2014. Toxic organophosphates – found in substances such as jet engine oil – were discovered in his body, an inquest heard last year. The hearing will resume shortly.