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Toxic Fumes Are Leaking into Airplanes, Sickening Crews and Passengers(wsj.com)
44 points by yeknoda a day ago | 16 comments
mitchbob a day ago | parent | next [-]

https://archive.ph/2kNLj

elmerfud a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A lot of people think planes are this sealed tube in the air. Nope, they use compressor stages of the engines to pressurize the cabins. This kind of thing can happen. They should have been able to close off the effected engine from pressurizing the cabin and the other should have been able to clear the air quickly, unless the was another failure too.

I've been on some where you can smell the jet fuel (kerosene) when they start the engine because they forgot to close off the cabin. They said it was normal and "harmless". It was probably harmless for me, considering the infrequent flights I take, but not to cabin crew.

bn-l a day ago | parent [-]

Do planes use leaded fuel?

rcxdude a day ago | parent [-]

Not something like a passenger jet. Leaded fuel is generally a thing for smaller general aviation aircraft where the designs are ancient and there's a huge barrier to updating anything about how they are operated within regulatory boundaries (which might, finally, have been worked through and there's now I think a lead-free alternative).

OutOfHere 19 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I advise always tightly wearing a "3M Particulate Respirator 8577, P95, NIOSH APPROVED, with Nuisance Level Organic Vapor Relief" mask while in flight. An N95 won't do it, and a P95 without the carbon layer won't do it either.

Even then, obviously it won't help with carbon monoxide. Only the oxygen mask could. I would stick to Boeing planes for now to lower the risk since it's greater in Airbus planes.

Note that a standard pulse oximeter could continue to falsely show good oxygenation when having carbon monoxide poisoning, so do not trust it then if it shows a high value.

bob_theslob646 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

Is there any simple way to detect the presence of this while aboard?

burnt-resistor a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I refuse to fly. 75% of the time I've flown, I've smelled the diesel fuel-like odor of Jet A in the cabin at startup. It's way too normalized.

Also, like astronauts, flight crew receive significant cumulative ionizing radiation exposure.

LargoLasskhyfv a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Airbus A350, Airbus A220(ex Bombardier C-Series), Boeing 787, Embraer E-Jet E2 Series, don't use it. Maybe future models of ATR-72(or descendants) won't.

bob_theslob646 11 minutes ago | parent [-]

Is there any easy way to book flights that displays the plane model information?

anonym29 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Looks like WSJ finally killed archive.is.

Anyone have any alternatives?

bookofjoe a day ago | parent [-]

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/air-travel-toxic-fumes...

4d4m a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Another name for this is Toxic Air Syndrome

Felquinhas a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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Felquinhas a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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Felquinhas a day ago | parent | prev [-]

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xorbax a day ago | parent [-]

Why post 3 distinct versions of the same statement?