Flybe pilots protest over 'noxious' air
21.10.07
Planes flown by budget airline Flybe to and from Belfast City Airport have been contaminated by noxious fumes, the BBC reports. It claims that flight crew members are refusing to fly on some of its planes claiming their health and that of passengers is being put at risk.
Some crew at Flybe are refusing to fly part of the company's fleet, saying poor air quality is putting them and passengers at risk, the BBC reports. In the past 15 months, the BBC investigation has found that noxious fumes have leaked into aircraft cabins on ten of the airline's flights operating on the Birmingham to Belfast and Gatwick to Belfast routes. These all involve the same type of aircraft - the 146 made by British Aerospace.
The 146 is generally used on domestic flights. On one flight from Birmingham to Belfast in July two cabin attendants collapsed and the whole crew were taken to hospital on arrival in Belfast. One was subsequently off work for more than a month. In a similar incident on the same route in February, the flight crew had to don oxygen masks and abort the flight after just 15 minutes.
The quality of aircraft air has long been the subject of controversy. Air is bled off from the engines and cooled before being piped inside the plane, but campaigners say fumes from engine oil can sometimes leak into the air system causing them to be inhaled by crew and passengers. There are also fears that airline employees could be suffering damage to their health because of long-term exposure to these toxins.
Some cabin crew are so alarmed that they are boycotting the 146. However, Flybe says its aircraft are operated and maintained to the highest industry standard. The airline says that it has taken a commercial decision to withdraw the aircraft concerned early next year.
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