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PASSENGER jets risk “dropping out of the sky” because airlines refuse to fit detectors that could save pilots from poisonous cabin air, a toxicologist told the Sunday Express.
Professor Chris van Netten, former US government adviser, says the industry is putting profits before the health and safety of passengers or crew.
He says that by failing to fit monitors that can “easily” detect leaks of odorless, colorless and toxic carbon monoxide, there is always the risk that pilots could inhale fumes and be rendered incapable of safely flying the plane.
Professor van Netten, who is Canadian, is a world authority on bleed-air contamination.
He said: “Carbon monoxide is a relatively rare event but it’s an acute one that can bring an aircraft down.
“When it happens you want to know what is going on because it is incapacitating and you want to be able to flush it out.
“If you can put detectors in the home, why not put them in the aircraft?”
He says they could avert “the worst situation that can make a plane drop out of the sky” and adds that fitting them as standard is “the least” airlines can do.
He claims the failure to fit detectors is symptomatic of a general attitude in the industry towards concerns over cabin air, adding: “If they were to officially admit the aircraft air was not healthy, they are in big trouble financially. They would be bankrupt.” The professor’s warning comes amid growing concern about the safety of cabin air. Last Sunday we revealed that two top British Airways pilots, Richard Westgate and Karen Lysakowska, had died within a month of each other aged 43.
Both had complained for years they had been exposed to toxic fumes.
Lawyers for Mr Westgate have predicted that chronic ill health caused by frequent flying could one day be seen as the “new asbestos”.
Medics believe pilots suffer from the release of dangerous organo phosphates and other compounds found in jet engine oil.
These compounds can contaminate the cabin because of the way air is supplied, being sucked through the jet engines, then into a bleed pipe that enters the cabin unfiltered.
Any oil leak at high temperatures in the engine area can release a cocktail of potentially poisonous fumes.
At very high temperatures these can also include carbon monoxide, which can cause drowsiness and, at exceptionally high levels, death. Two pilots died when their prop-engine plane crashed in Essex in 2001 after they were poisoned by carbon monoxide exhaust fumes.
Professor van Netten said that although detecting organo phosphates is a more complicated problem, spotting excessive carbon monoxide levels is “easily done”.
He advised the US Federal Aviation Administration. It agreed the need for monitors 11 years ago but did not make them mandatory. The European Aviation Safety Agency has set maximum levels for carbon monoxide in cabins, but the lack of detectors means no one knows if the regulation is being adhered to.
British Airways insists there is “no evidence” of excessive carbon monoxide levels on its planes.
Carbon monoxide is a relatively rare event but it’s an acute one that can bring an aircraft down
However, when asked how it can be sure in the absence of monitors, it declined to answer directly, saying only that it complied with the regulations.
A spokesman said: “We would never operate an aircraft we believed posed a health or safety risk.
“The air in the cabin is exchanged every two to three minutes, compared with five to 10 minutes in an air-conditioned building.
“Studies have consistently shown the cabin air on commercial aircraft meets all regulatory standards and is as good as, or better than, that of typical offices or homes.”
The British Airline Pilots Association said it was “working closely” with the industry to investigate the cause of “fume events” but they were not its members’ big concern.
Some pilots criticise Balpa for being “too close” to the airlines, but a spokesman insisted: “Balpa is not averse to ruffling industry and regulatory feathers on issues of real flight safety risk.”