A pilot's testimony

I have always enjoyed excellent health - or rather I did, until shortly after I started flying pressurised aircraft for a living.

The first pressurised type that I flew was the BAe146. I noticed that the aircraft was quite smelly (the so-called 'dirty socks' smell) particularly in the mornings, but since it was clear that this was regarded by the more experienced crews as normal, I thought nothing more of it.

To begin with, I remained in excellent health. However after around 18 months on type I gradually started to become unwell.

At first I attributed my symptoms to the demands of my roster, the unsociable hours and so on, and attempted to remedy matters by using up accrued holiday to rest and recuperate.

This was not successful and as my condition deteriorated it became clear that I was developing a medical problem. At the time I suspected it was a viral infection of some kind.

My symptoms included a sore throat, headaches, aching joints, constant fatigue and tiredness, muscular weakness, hot/cold flushes, a slight giddiness and light headedness, an inability to concentrate and difficulty with even simple tasks and poor short term memory. Overall, I became mentally much less sharp and this resulted in a decreasing ability to meet the demands of my work.

Many times it was my unhappy duty to report sick, as I felt I was unsafe to continue operating the aircraft, on which the safety of sometimes more than 100 passengers and crew depended. Often this would be at times and in locations which were inconvenient to my employer.

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