Aerotoxic radio programme.
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HurricaneSmith
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That's a great piece of reporting, Bill, and really clear. So many sad stories and yet nothing seems to change. 
2cv
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A few interesting examples from 2007.
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And a 2008 Panorama
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And a 2008 Panorama
2cv
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A sad story that I saw today;
A routine US Airways flight from Charlotte to St. Thomas in January 2010 turned into a nightmare when a toxic fume leak filled the cabin with tricresyl phosphate (TSP) — a dangerous chemical from the engines.
Seven crew members, including Captain Dave Hill and First Officer Macon “Mick” Fowler, suffered dizziness, headaches, and a strange “stinky feet” smell. Passengers had no idea, but the crew quietly fought through the flight. Fowler later said that if it had lasted 15 minutes longer, they might not have been able to land.
Doctors confirmed chemical exposure, and US Airways admitted the leak.
The aftermath was tragic: Hill lost his medical license and took his life years later; Fowler never flew again. Flight attendants Sylvia Baird and Denise Weiss still suffer lasting damage.
Now, survivors are pushing for mandatory cabin air sensors to prevent this from happening again.
A routine US Airways flight from Charlotte to St. Thomas in January 2010 turned into a nightmare when a toxic fume leak filled the cabin with tricresyl phosphate (TSP) — a dangerous chemical from the engines.
Seven crew members, including Captain Dave Hill and First Officer Macon “Mick” Fowler, suffered dizziness, headaches, and a strange “stinky feet” smell. Passengers had no idea, but the crew quietly fought through the flight. Fowler later said that if it had lasted 15 minutes longer, they might not have been able to land.
Doctors confirmed chemical exposure, and US Airways admitted the leak.
The aftermath was tragic: Hill lost his medical license and took his life years later; Fowler never flew again. Flight attendants Sylvia Baird and Denise Weiss still suffer lasting damage.
Now, survivors are pushing for mandatory cabin air sensors to prevent this from happening again.
HurricaneSmith
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Of others wish to read the recent sad article that Bill might be referring to, simply copy and paste the words below directly into Google.
us-airways-flight-fume-exposure
us-airways-flight-fume-exposure
2cv
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2cv
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Another life ruined, from The Wall Street Journal;
“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.
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, 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 NFL linebacker after a brutal hit. “It’s impossible not to draw that conclusion,” he said.
The doctor 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.
Incidents are 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.
Read more:
https://on.wsj.com/46o50WA
“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.
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, 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 NFL linebacker after a brutal hit. “It’s impossible not to draw that conclusion,” he said.
The doctor 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.
Incidents are 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.
Read more:
https://on.wsj.com/46o50WA