Testimonial of ATPL

I am the son of a Coalminer and left school with no formal qualifications. I qualified as a carpenter / joiner after self sponsoring myself on a day release course one day and two evenings for five years.

I gained my Private Pilots Licence by the age of 21 (I had saved up for a new car but decided to spend the money on flying lessons, something I had wanted to do since the age of 5).

I became a flying instructor at the age of 23 completing 12,000 Instructional hours mostly at Biggin Hill airfield. During this period I qualified as a CAA Examiner on single and multi engined aircraft.

From 1981 – 1987 I was a commercial pilot and completed about 3,000 hours single pilot flying, most of which was at night. From 1987 – 1999 I was an Airline pilot and flew for 10,000 hours including 7,000 hours on the BAe 146 and passed all the simulator checks.

Most of my flying was multi sector routes with multi APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) starts and stops, sometimes doing six sectors per day with 6 am starts.

I have been on the aircraft doing my early morning pre flight checks and have started the APU and on many occasions the aircraft cabin has filled with an electric blue haze.

I have looked back into the cabin with early morning sun shining through the aircraft cabin windows creating a fascinating spectrum as the rays penetrated this haze; it cleared after about ten minutes.

The BAe 146 was well known for this problem but no one thought much of it, as it was a common occurrence.

Sometimes passengers and Cabin Staff complained about the smell.

It was rarely put in the Tech Log perhaps only if it was as bad as I have described earlier but this still did not ground the aircraft. It would have been rectified when it could have been fitted into flight operations.

In 1998 I was feeling unwell with constant flu like symptoms, permanently fatigued after a flight. Sleep was being seriously affected by awaking with ‘sleep paralysis’ (where the brain wakes up but the body is totally paralysed for a moment or two). Incidentally this rarely happens now. I

 felt constant fatigue, headache, nausea and ears ringing. Once standing at a bus stop with my Captains uniform on in Amsterdam at the end of a long day, an American passer-by said to me: “Man, you look tired!”

I kept flying as I could do the job blindfold but later realised that if something out of the ordinary happened, I would find it hard to cope so I stopped flying in April 1999.

Over that summer I gradually became ill with multiple symptoms. I knew I was ill because I doubted myself all the time, for example: “Did I lock the door?” “How many flea droplets did I put on my dog, 6 or 12?” I suspected that I might have CJD. By October I could not look after myself, as I felt so physically and mentally unwell, so I went voluntarily to a Private Psychiatric Hospital for 6 weeks in order ‘to get better and be looked after’.

The Hospital was was an "absolute rip off and appalling standards".

The Airline insurance Company paying the fee of £2000 per week for 6 weeks. I was diagnosed as ‘clinically depressed’ but I had nothing to be depressed about and told the Doctors that I did not agree with their diagnosis. “I don’t feel depressed – I feel ill!”

I told the Professor that I had been flying the BAe 146. I also told him about the organo phosphate in the cabin air as I thought it could be a possible cause of my illness. But at the time I really thought I had CJD because I felt so unwell.

This should all be recorded in my medical records.
 

ATPL.

I still suffer from neuropathy and organo phosphate problems but much, much better than in 1999.

Whilst at the hospital I was given anti depressants. I was finally put on Stellazine which gave me very bad Parkinson’s like effects. It was ‘Absolute hell’. I was fighting to stay alive.

Whilst in the hospital my speech became very slurred for 3 months and I had great difficulty in following conversations and thought processing. My vision was also disturbed which lasted for about 8 months. I had all the above symptoms before I went into hospital but it all became more extreme.

One evening whilst I was in the hospital I requested to be seen by a Doctor; a Hungarian Doctor came down from upstairs and asked me to move my arm, hand and legs - in 3 minutes she said “It’s the drugs” and they were stopped immediately. That is when I started to recover and by then the insurance money had run out, which meant that I had to leave, much to my relief.

I then went to see  a Neuro Psychiatrist in London (who also held a PPL), he was very helpful and arranged for me to have MRI and brain scans. I felt that he was much more helpful with my condition.

In 1999 I had a Nerve Conductivity test specifically aimed at my central nervous system, which showed “no damage”.

Moving on 5 years to 2004, I developed peripheral neuropathy in hand, feet and tongue – damage to the peripheral sensory nerves.I had the same Nerve Conductivity test carried out by the same Consultant who now said “My nerve system was damaged”. So I had another test, this time on the NHS in London, which confirmed damage to my nerve system and indeed peripheral neuropathy.

An Internet Farmers web site on organo phosphates states “One of the delayed effects of organo phosphate poisoning is irreversible peripheral neuropathy which can happen up to 5 years after exposure”. Also it says that certain anti depressants have hellish effects on people who have been exposed to organo phosphates.

I think now you can see why I believe my illness was due to organo phosphate poisoning but I did not know this information at the time and thought I had CJD. In October 2006 my dog, a constant and faithful companion for 16 years, died. I felt genuinely “depressed” so I know the difference between depression and illness.

I went to the Doctor this time and said “I feel depressed” and at the moment I am taking Citalopram for 6 months for depression. Recently I have adopted a new dog and he will be two in October. I am feeling much better; the depression has diminished, whether it is due to the anti depressants or my new dog. I think probably both but the cure is my dog.

I was 53 when I became ill, it has left me with memories of hell.

Yes, I have been there and back; it has also cost me 7 years of my career, which I worked so hard for.

My Conclusion:

How would I go about sorting out this job of organo phosphate and cabin air?

Use common sense, keep it simple.

I would acquire a BAe 146, put worn oil seals in the APU engine (worn enough to fill the cabin with a blue haze) so I would make sure that oil in the APU was the right stuff.

I would get the oil from 5 different airports. We don’t want clean oil we want the oil which contains organo-phosphates. You cannot trust anybody these days, hence obtaining the oil from 5 different locations.

On a cold morning, I would run the engine up, turn the air conditioning on and fill the cabin with a blue haze (with the House of Lords Committee inside – just joking!).

Then see what toxins and chemicals the fumes contain. Job done.

If it does contain toxins I would apply simple mathematics, working out how much a crew would be exposed to over 10 years, how much toxins has entered the body.

I know that we breathe cabin air all the time whilst we are flying but measuring these high level early morning doses would be a good guide to start with.