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The Countess of Mar asked Her Majesty's Government: What measures are in place for the reporting and investigating of incidents of exposure to contaminated air in United Kingdom aircraft; how many reports have been received for each year since 1995; how many of these reports were investigated; and what conclusions were drawn. [HL1637]
 
 
Lord Davies of Oldham: The Civil Aviation Authority's Mandatory Occurrence Reporting scheme requires reports of contaminated air events where they are considered by the reporter to represent potential airworthiness concerns. To identify the serious events from these, CAA review all smoke and fume events that may be related to engine oil and categorise them by the severity of the reported symptoms, as experienced by the pilots. The severity ranges from a brief smell of smoke or oil, to some form of impairment.
 
The numbers of reports made to CAA since 1995 are as follows and in parentheses are the number of those events that involved pilot impairment.
 
1995 3 (0)                     1999 25 (3)                   2003 29 (0)
1996 7 (0)                     2000 35 (3)                   2004 36 (1)
1997 14 (2)                   2001 52 (1)                   2005 35 (0)
1998 17 (0)                   2002 27 (0)
 
As a result of these reports, all of which were investigated, specific continued airworthiness actions have been taken in respect of BAe146 and Boeing 757 aircraft to mitigate any effects and to reduce the frequency of occurrence.
 
The CAA believes that the increase in reports received in recent years is due to better reporting. However, the number of events where impairment has been reported has remained low.
 
          1 November 2005
 
 
AOPIS COMMENT: THE REPORTED NUMBERS IS SERIOUS PIECE OF MISINFORMATION.
Member's Area

A family holiday ruined

"When we boarded the aircraft we were all in excellent health. During the flight, my husband and I started feeling very light headed. We had head pain and felt very fatigued.
 
I could not control my bowels and was continuously in the lavatory...
 
About 48 hours after we arrived, we all developed severe flu like symptoms.
It got so bad that we had to seek medical attention and went to the emergency room at a Florida hospital ....
 
This has proven to be a great battle of red tape and ignorance. It has been an extreme mission and has demanded so much of me at a time when I am at my weakest.
 
 
To any passengers out there who have suffered ill health like this during and after flying, report it to the airline, the public health organizations, and anybody who will listen"

read the full story

The Travel journalist..
 
I stumbled onto your site while attempting to find information on what has happed to me.  I inhaled fumes in the cabin while awaiting a gate for a prolonged period .. I was very sick upon leaving the plane and it escalated until I was hospitalized two weeks ago.  Now ..  I have a serious lung problem and fatigue that makes even doing the dishes difficult. ....  

The 'irony' in this is I write a travel column and this is not what my readers want to hear!"

click here and read the full story