Captain X

(observations of the problems affecting my son)

Over the last three years, I have been concerned as I became more and more aware of changes in X’s well-being and behavior. Increasingly, the well adjusted, cheerful, responsible and kindly man was becoming short tempered and impossible to reason with.

Now it is clear that poisoning by toxic air in the BAe146 aircraft, which X has flown for over ten years, has impaired his health and has contributed to these changes.

As we live in different parts of England, I see Xinfrequently, but staying with his family over the years, I have felt a growing dismay when I saw how exhausted he often appeared to be and how easily he fell asleep during the day - unusual for a man in his prime. There were times when his cognitive powers seemed poor (once he told me that, after long hours in the cockpit, if someone asked him to tell them what 2 plus 2 made, he couldn’t tell them), also his memory was uncertain and, on occasions, I was concerned at the very unusual, frenzied way in which he was talking. This was before the revelations about organo-phosphate poisoning.

On my visits I heard accounts of how X’s employers were increasingly showing scant consideration for their pilots, in the way the rostering schedules were arranged. Crews were missing out on rest periods, poor feeding arrangements were experienced and there was constant encroachment on any private life - family events were spoiled - and X’s frustration was rising as these conditions deteriorated. Added to this, X, who has been an experienced and conscientious pilot of some thirty years, was becoming increasingly worried to find that his employers were compromising on the safety of passengers and this was preying on his mind. He appeared to be under considerable and rising stress, but - now, knowing more about the effects of toxic fumes - it is clear that these symptoms of stress must have been greatly exacerbated by the effects of the poisoning. He became - and this was totally uncharacteristic - aggressive, increasingly self-absorbed and impossible to talk to, without explosions of irritability.

Two years ago, over a safety issue, X grounded himself. As he began to realise that he was being deprived of his career as a pilot and - despite the authorities having known about toxic air in the cockpits - that his health had been seriously affected, he became angry and bitterly resentful. Then, in trying to establish the gross unfairness to which he had been subjected and with the aggravation of his impaired health, his stress levels rose alarmingly. It has been a seriously difficult time for X’s family. Being intelligent he has concentrated on ways to improve his health; though I have concerns as to what the long term effects of organo-phosphate poisoning may have on my once very healthy, happy natured son. I am relieved that X seems better able to discuss his problems rationally, though clearly he has to struggle to control his rising irritation.

My son has always had a strong sense of fairness and is still very angry that conscientious and experienced pilots - who carry so much responsibility - have been so appallingly treated and, as a vocational pilot, that he has been forced, by circumstances - outside his control