I still remember they used disinsect the aircraft cabin, before you land in Indian airports with an aerosol spray https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/spray

https://www.epa.gov/mosquitocontrol/aircraft-disinsection

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gambiting an hour ago | parent | next [-]

They did that on our take off from Naples just a month ago, they said it's against insects.

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mmsc 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They still do this when you land in Australia

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luciandan 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They do but chances are it's not 100% effective.

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zbjornson 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Rather, "there is no evidence to show that using insecticide to kill mosquitoes inside aircraft cabins is effective in preventing introduction and spread of mosquito-borne diseases."

https://www.epa.gov/mosquitocontrol/aircraft-disinsection

Not sure where the idea came from that spraying the cabin aisle would penetrate the luggage bins, cargo hold, under the seats, or really anywhere.

	▲	nkmnz 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		1. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 2. Risk is convex, so every risk increase by measures not taken is multiplicative, not additive. The real question must be: does the disinfection do more harm than it provides reduction of risk.

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kayo_20211030 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It used to happen in NZ too. I don't know if it still does.

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PlunderBunny an hour ago | parent [-]

As a kid (in the early 70s) I remember the air hostesses walking down the isles with a spray can. They don’t do that any more, but I wonder if or why they don’t add lower concentrations of the aerosol to the air conditioning at the end of the flight.

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dghlsakjg an hour ago | parent [-]

You could spend tens or hundreds of millions building an automatic system (certification for aircraft is not cheap or easy) or just hand the flight attendant a can of spray.

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PlunderBunny 34 minutes ago | parent [-]

Sure, but I can imagine the more expensive airlines worrying that the ‘optics’ of spraying your passengers down aren’t great (to be clear - I’m not objecting and I’d rather they do it). I wasn’t suggesting they retrofit to existing aircraft of the period, but rather just build it in as they design the next generation airflow system. Or do you think it would still be way too expensive even then?

	▲	rogerrogerr 26 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Adding systems to aircraft, whether retrofit or new design, is a horrifically complex and expensive thing. What kind of disinfectant is used? How is it distributed? Does it do something bad at -80 degrees C? At +80 C? If it freezes, what happens? What if someone loads the wrong thing into the disinfectant bucket? Like fuel? Or oil? Where do we put the switch to isolate the cockpit from the disinfectant? Where does flipping that isolation switch go in the unknown-fume-event checklist? What if it catches fire? It's not enough to say it can't catch fire, you must assume it will catch fire. The fire suppression system has to be aware of it. What if the fire suppression system erroneously thinks the disinfectant system is on fire? What if it was erroneously thought to be on fire, and then later _actually does catch fire_? How long can we fly with a flaming disinfectant system that someone in Terribadistan filled with kerosene? You probably have more than one disinfectant module, probably attached to each pack. Is the plane "disinfected" if only one pack is operational? If your disinfectant module fails, does it bring the pack down with it? No? Now we have to certify the packs for both with-and-without disinfectant module operation.