Simviation Forum - Toxic Planes

Sep 26^th, 2009 at 7:00am

Rich H Offline
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8270000/8270978.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?

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Reply #1 - Sep 26^th, 2009 at 11:56am

expat Offline
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Rich H wrote on Sep 26^th, 2009 at 7:00am:

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

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Reply #2 - Sep 26^th, 2009 at 4:16pm

eno Offline
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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.

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Reply #3 - Sep 26^th, 2009 at 6:49pm

machineman9 Offline
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expat wrote on Sep 26^th, 2009 at 11:56am:

Rich H wrote on Sep 26^th, 2009 at 7:00am:

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

If anything I'd say the problem would've been worse back then anyway. As technology improved, the toxicity problem would've probably improved too. So they are no doubt bringing up an old issue which has been made less dramatic over the years anyway.

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Reply #4 - Sep 27^th, 2009 at 3:24am

Hagar Offline
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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?

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Reply #5 - Sep 27^th, 2009 at 11:20am

expat Offline
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Hagar wrote on Sep 27^th, 2009 at 3:24am:

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

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B1 Boeing 737-800 and Dash8 Q-400

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Reply #6 - Oct 5^th, 2009 at 2:54pm

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

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