[Peetwo]

An undesirable headline: Crew ‘spaced out’ on toxic fumes

Not an accident but a fairly disturbing (headline) incident for legacy airline British Airways...

Sunday Times via the Oz:

British Airways flight crew ‘spaced out’ on fumes


Flight crew displayed bizarre behaviour including “stuffing” food into their mouths while using oxygen masks and wandering around “lost” in the cabin.

Mark Hookham
The Times
12:00AM January 2, 2017

British Airways flight attendants on board an Airbus A380 superjumbo vomited, became “spaced out” and had to use emergency oxygen after suspected “toxic fumes” were detected in the cabin during a long-haul flight, a leaked report reveals.

At least one crew member became so ill that he curled up on the floor and put a blanket over his head. Others displayed bizarre behaviour, including “stuffing” food into their mouths while using oxygen masks and wandering around “lost” in the cabin.

The report was written by the cabin service director, the most senior grade of flight attendant, who was in charge of 22 cabin crew on a flight from San Francisco to London last October 25.

About 40 minutes after take-off, while the airliner was over Canada, crew detected a strong noxious smell similar to burning plastic and the flight was diverted to Vancouver.

The captain declared an emergency, telling air traffic control the problem was “toxic gas-type fumes”. After the aircraft landed safely, all the flight attendants and the three pilots were taken to hospital.

BA later described the incident as an “odour event”, prompting claims by the Unite union that it was downplaying the health risks.

The cabin air in most passenger jets is supplied from the compression section of the engine in a process known as “bleed air”. If seals inside the engine leak, it is believed heated oil fumes can enter the air supply, contaminating it with chemicals that some experts believe can cause serious health problems.

The leaked report graphically details how 12 crew members displayed symptoms that gave “cause for concern” and that eight of the nine crew members on the upper deck plus the captain used emergency oxygen. After the smell was detected by a door towards the back of the main cabin and on the upper deck, the report says, “it soon became apparent that more crew were behaving in a non-normal manner ... (with) reports of dizziness, light heads, headaches, nausea, itchy red eyes, metallic taste in mouth, floating-type feelings, aggression and, most worryingly, forgetfulness and confusion, an inability to think straight and converse in normal manner”.

One crew member said something “completely out of context” and seconds later had forgotten he had said it. Senior flight attendants would “lose” colleagues who would say they were going to the toilet but ended up at the other end of the aircraft “not knowing how they got there”, the report adds. The CSD described “crew in corners on (the) floor with blankets over their heads” and “crew ‘stuffing food’ in their mouths while on oxygen”.

Publicist Ciara Parkes, who has represented actors Jude Law and Ewan McGregor, was on the plane and said she feared they were being hijacked because the crew were so panicked. “That’s probably the most terrified I’ve been in my life,” she said.

She said her chest became “incredibly tight” and she struggled to stand. She claimed some passengers had bloodshot eyes. Four days later, a blood test showed Ms Parkes had elevated levels of ­enzymes, which can indicate liver problems. She has had regular headaches since.

BA said its engineers had inspected the aircraft and “no fault was found”.

The Sunday Times

MTF...P2