BOEING, once a household name for its safety record and engineering in trouble

...wait, there's more

My first on-duty flight was on the iconic Boeing 747, the Queen of the Skies, the fabulous jumbo jet to New York. All these years later, I still remember the unmistakable roar of her engines as we raced down the runway for take-off to begin my long flying career. I trusted Boeing and I trusted the technicians and maintenance services of the five-star airline I flew for. As my father, a pilot, used to say: Boeing and Germany’s largest airline are the best of the best.

Decades later, shocking news emerges that Boeing airplanes are falling apart in midair, that parts of the fuselage and tires are falling off during take-off, and panels are lost in-flight en route; a few days ago a pilot has been quoted saying the plane's gauges "just kind of went blank on me” which resulted in the B787 dropping suddenly scaring everybody onboard to death and injuring fifty. Loose bolts are revealing shoddy workmanship. Whistleblowers are saying that there is a big quality problem that maintenance and servicing are way below par and that blind eyes are being turned.

During my career, a sense of distrust concerning health and safety first arose with yet another problem we had to deal with: the mysterious illnesses of hundreds of crew members seemingly in connection with the inflight insecticide spraying (disinsection) required by many countries before landing. As concerns grew, it became evident not only that was causing health problems but in addition the fumes entering the cabin breathing air from the 'bleed air' via the engines were also suspected to be causing illness among many of us. This bleed-air issue is due to a design fault which includes ‘leaking’ seals - but also poor maintenance and servicing.
When taking over a plane from the previous crew and their flight, we nearly always encountered an unpleasant strong smell similar to that of an unventilated gym, sweaty trainers, or wet dogs. But it is none of those. Nothing has changed, it is still there today. That smell is the distinctive smell of certain gaseous chemicals that have seeped into the seats, carpets, and walls of the airplane.

It has since been revealed that both the aircraft manufacturer and the airlines have been aware of this bleed-air issue all along.

"Certain mechanical failures that can lead to contamination...“. (Boeing).

A supply of pressurized air is required by humans to sustain life at high altitudes. This air is supplied directly from the compressor section of the jet engine and is known as ‘bleed air‘. Unfiltered bleed air is mixed inside the aircraft with already recirculated cabin air at a ratio of 50/50. Although the recirculated air is subsequently filtered, all of the bleed air that originates from the jet engines is unfiltered.

Concerns were voiced in internal emails among Boeing engineers:

Aero Medical Research

In 1939, Captain of the Medical Corps and Director of the Aero Medical Research Laboratory, Dr. Harry G. Armstrong wrote about "Noxious Fluids and Gases in Aviation: Hot Oil Fumes" (pp. 178-180 in Principles and Practice of Aviation Medicine, Aero Medical Research Laboratory, United States Army, published by The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, Maryland).

He notes: ‘several cases’ of inhalation of hot oil fumes brought to his attention by pilots. “The symptoms were similar to, and initially confused with carbon monoxide poisoning." He also notes that the high concentrations of oil fumes mentioned in animal studies would not occur in aircraft, but "the effects of lower concentrations are apparently sufficient to endanger flight safety.”

There is no dispute that oil fumes, which often have a "dirty socks" odor, have occasionally leaked into cockpits and cabins since jet aircraft designers began using systems that draw air from jet engines, known as "bleed" systems.

As early as 1953, Boeing issued a "Decontamination Program" report based on a study of bleed air in B-52 flights.

The report noted “… that the potential toxic effects of contamination were still unknown. Therefore, with few exceptions, the crew used 100% oxygen during all flights and removed their masks only briefly to make observations."

The text states that "the odor penetrates the men's nasal passages, clothing, oxygen masks, cabin linings, etc., and lingers for a considerable time after exposure". This is something I vividly remember: with time it was impossible to get the smell out of the uniform, even after dry cleaning, airing, or washing them by hand - the toxic smell stuck, and a new uniform had to be bought.

While acknowledging that contaminated air can enter aircraft cabins when seals fail, the industry has long maintained that cabin air is safe and that such exposures are “rare” and would “not cause long-term health effects”.

Pilots, flight attendants, and even passengers have claimed that the fumes have caused long-term ailments such as tremors, memory loss, dizziness, disorientation, headaches, fatigue, and more. However, these cases have been difficult to prove for various reasons. Some don’t realize that they should get certain blood tests done within a time frame, and then again medical staff don’t understand the topic of poisoning. Some crew members who have lost their jobs or have been medically “retired” due to fume-related illnesses claim that the airline industry and many regulators covered up the problem, understated its severity, and made it difficult for affected crew members to get prompt medical attention.

Consideration of the toxicological implications is given little weight until you're literally "hit in the head" - one could say that until top managers are affected, they won't do anything.

In 1973, Dr. J.G. Gaume, M.D. in Aviation Medicine Safety Research Science Research wrote a report: 

"Since the DC-IO has been put into operational airline service, initially with United Airlines and American Airlines, a number of complaints of cephalalgia (headaches) have been made by the cabin attendants (C.A.) of both airlines. Related complaints have been received describing ‘unpleasant, sour, irritating, acrid and pungent’ odors in the cabins and lower galleys of the OC-10. The odors have been variously attributed to spilled and decomposing food, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hot metal, and other causes.”

Dr. J.G. Gaume also stated that:

”CO and CO2 being odorless, could not be responsible for the ‘odors’ described above. Therefore, any odors present must be due to some other contaminant(s) in the cabin environment.” (sic)

Since then, a lot of research has been conducted and new findings published. The effects of such a gaseous mixture in an acute event are unknown. They say. Countless crew, pilots, and cabin crew have been injured, in many cases for life, however, in most cases, the reason behind their ill health is brushed aside and denied.

In the past and nowadays it appears that there is a problem with technical logs disappearing and issues not being addressed, or they are being put on the backlog to be done later. Additionally, in the case of fume events pilots frequently fail to report malfunctions or downplay them. 

Needless to say, it is important to address these issues to ensure safety and prevent potential accidents due to possible pilot incapacitation and failing technology.

Stand-by! In my next article, I will share a Flight Report by pilots following such a fume event.

• UFP Measurements in Aircraft a presentation by Dr Susan Michaelis PhD. MSc. and former pilot.

• Health consequences of exposure to aircraft contaminated air and fume events: a narrative review and medical protocol for the investigation of exposed aircrew and passengers. Jonathan Burdon, Lygia Therese Budnik, Xaver Baur et al.

• Cabin Air Contamination in RB57A Aircraft - 1955, Capt. Loomis, Stephen Krop PhD

Everything on the subject of Cabin Air Quality Events (CACE)/ fume events, Aerotoxic Syndrome, and problems with “disinsection” can be found at UNFILTERED. We also have a Petition: please sign and share it! Read testimonies, current and past court cases, and much more.

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