Can "Fume Event" be one of the causes for passing out of Pilots.. Possibly Yes!
What are toxic cabin fumes?
If the system which compresses the air from the engines and uses it to
pressurise the cabin malfunctions, excess oil particles enter the air
in the commercial passenger planes. This is also known as "fume event"
Who are at the risk?
The frequent fliers, including the aircrew are at the maximum risk of
getting affected. The members who are genetically susceptible to the
toxics as their bodies are unable to flush out the toxic material
which can turn dangerous over a long period of time. It is also known
as "Aerotoxic Syndrome". Official records from the Civil Aviation
Authority show that oxygen masks are being used by pilots and crew at
the rate of at least five times a week to combat suspected “fume
events”.
What are the possible consequences?
A phenomenon long denied by airlines but which is blamed by some for
the deaths of at least two pilots and numerous other incidents where
pilots have passed out in flight. Co-pilots can normally take over,
but campaigners claim the syndrome is a suspected cause of some
mid-air disasters.
Background:
According to a leading News carrier Telegraph who claims to have
acquired the report of Mr. Stanhope Payne; claims that Mr Payne, who
is inquiring into the death of Richard Westgate, a British Airways
pilot, called on British Airways and the Civil Aviation Authority
(CAA) to take “urgent action to prevent future deaths”.
Stanhope Payne is the senior coroner for Dorset. He demands that BA
and the CAA respond to the report within eight weeks, setting out the
action they propose to take. The report, made under regulation 28 of
the Coroners’ Investigation Regulations 2013, is not a full verdict
from an inquest, which has yet to be held in this case.
In the report, sent to the chief executive of BA and the chief
operating officer of the Civil Aviation Authority, the coroner raises
five “matters of concern”, including that “organophosphate compounds
are present in aircraft cabin air”; that “the occupants of aircraft
cabins are exposed to organophosphate compounds with consequential
damage to their health” and that “impairment to the health of those
controlling aircraft may lead to the death of occupants”. He also says
there is no real-time monitoring to detect failures in cabin air
quality and that no account is taken by airlines of “genetic variation
in the human species that would render individuals … intolerant of the
exposure”.
Er Jigna Shah [BE, MBA]
Sub Editor
www.UK-Aviation-News.blogspot.
jigna.aerosoft@gmail.com
aerosoft.jigna@gmail.com
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