Toxic Planes

[Rich H]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/ne ... 270978.stm
I remember seeing a program about this a year ago or so, what causes it? Faults with the engines and plane, or just bad maintenance?

[expat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8270000/8270978.stm
what causes it? 

How long have we been flying pressurised aircraft, 50 plus years and this is only just coming to light. Sorry, but the amount of people reporting the effects in comparison to the amount that have flown/piloted over this time length leaves me a little sceptical.

Matt 

[eno]

It's the same with lots of things ........ we have so many ways of having information distributed and so fast that it seems there's more happening than before.

I suspect that everyone who has ever flown in a pressurised aircraft has experienced some of the reported effects at one time or another, they have just put it down to jet lag or the effects of foreign climbs.

I'm not going to dismiss the problem as being trivial ...... but as Matt has said it's just more reported and maybe not as problematic as it seems.

[machineman9]

[quote][quote]http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8270000/8270978.stm
what causes it?

[Hagar]

Rather odd that BALPA specifies the BAe 146 & Boeing 757 for being the worst offenders. If this is the case surely it wouldn't be too difficult to pinpoint the cause. Presumably the air-conditioning & pressurisation systems are basically the same on all large jet aircraft. The first question I would ask is; from the large variety of airliners in use all over the world, what is different with these systems on these two particular types that is likely to cause the problem?

[expat]

Rather odd that BALPA specifies the BAe 146 & Boeing 757 for being the worst offenders. If this is the case surely it wouldn't be too difficult to pinpoint the cause. Presumably the air-conditioning & pressurisation systems are basically the same on all large jet aircraft. The first question I would ask is; from the large variety of airliners in use all over the world, what is different with these systems on these two particular types that is likely to cause the problem?

Whist I am sceptical of the effects that are reported, I can confirm that the BAe 146 is as about as bad as it gets when it comes to fumes in the aircraft not just the cockpit. I worked for about 5 years on this aircraft type and the number of times that we had problems, I lost count. The main problem is that the engine on the 146 is a bastard child. It started life as a tank engine, then was adapted to choppers and then ended up in the 146. Still once we are all flying on the Dreamliner it will be a problem of yesterday.

Matt

[Ivan]

Dont forget the amount of smelly new plastic and recycled cigarette smoke inside the ventilation system