Aerotoxic Association

Bright lights would "jump around" and he found it hard to focus, his speech was sometimes slurred, and he had difficulty with memory and thought processing.  The overall effect was of being permanently intoxicated, but without the alcohol.

Regarded by his friends and family as a cheerful and equable person he began to suffer from mild depression and confusion. With a growing family and worried about keeping his job, he dismissed his symptoms as an unwelcome side effect and carried on flying for another sixteen years.

Time to stop

By 2004 he was feeling very unwell and his symptoms were increasingly affecting his off-duty life. Many pilots have to’ face the day’ when they are unable to continue to fly - both for their own sake and out of a duty to their passengers.

In August 2004, Captain Hoyte elected not to fly a Public Transport flight with passengers to Salzburg in bad weather in the Austrian Alps due to feeling very unwell with increasing neurological symptoms. By now he felt himself to be an actual flight safety hazard.

He took three months sick leave during which no mention was made by any of the specialist Doctors of the possibility of his illness being caused by contaminated cabin air or organophosphate chemical poisoning. He was surprisingly diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

Back to flying

Capt Hoyte reluctantly returned to flying, but like many other pilots, only part time in an effort to limit his chronic fatigue and ongoing neurological symptoms. Once again he elected not to fly in June 2005. This was to be his last flight in a BAe 146.

Grounded

Captain Hoyte was finally grounded in February 2006 by a specialist Doctor who diagnosed ‘Chronic stress’, again with no mention whatsoever of contaminated air.

In April 2006 Capt Hoyte was one of the 27 Balpa pilots tested by University College London (UCL) – all of whom were found to have highly abnormal blood / fat samples and measurable cognitive impairment. All subsequent tests showed a clear case of chemical toxic poisoning including Tricresyl phosphate (a unique engine oil additive) being found in his fat. 

It was at this time that Capt Hoyte became aware of many other pilots who had the same neurological symptoms; including one pilot who had been grounded in 2000 by the CAA due to suspected organophosphate poisoning as he was deemed to be a ‘flight safety risk’.

Testing

Like many pilots, Capt Hoyte found very little help available from his GP or NHS. He changed his GP twice after being offered anti depressants whilst exhibiting ‘symptoms of depression’ but knowing he was not a depressed type. He took no anti depressants. Any testing was hard to organise and he found little assistance from Balpa.

Capt Tristan Loraine & Capt Susan Michaelis of GCAQE would be his sole source of assistance and first suggested that he may be suffering from ‘Aerotoxic Syndrome’ in June 2006.

Aerotoxic Association

By early 2007 Capt Hoyte was determined to prevent any other aircrew or passengers from

enduring what he had experienced, especially as his health slowly began to recover.

 

He set up the Aerotoxic Association for the benefit of other aircrew and passengers in June 2007

at the UK Houses of Parliament.

 

As a result of not flying for over three years, Capt Hoyte's health has returned , more or less, to how it was in 1989.