In an article published in the LA Times, the author shared her airline industry investigation that found out that toxic fumes from jet engine oil are seeping into the air supply and sicken the passengers as well as the crew. She started her article with a horrifying ordeal — the pilot had passed out and the copilot, Eric Tellman, was close to passing out but managed to strap on his oxygen mask in time. Then he gave the captain a mask.
An odd smell had mysteriously scented the air — one that had passengers and flight attendants coughing and crying. Although the captain and the co-pilot landed safely, they had no memory of the landing or even taxiing down the runway. Tellman told the author that he went to the hospital and spent the following week in bed very ill. He was vomiting, shaking, and felt as if “a freight train had run over us.”
You do the math: a strange smell, odd symptoms, and a trip to the ER that landed him in bed for a week. Something was off with the air supply to the plane — way off. The author of the article pointed out that the air we breathe while we are in the air comes from the jet engines. There’s even a name for it — bleed air. Unless there’s a mechanical issue, it’s safe to breathe. One type of mechanical issue given as an example, though, is a faulty seal. When this happens, heated jet engine oil leaks into the air supply, releasing toxic fumes into the plane.
This is supposed to be a rare event, but the LA Times’ investigation found something very alarming: vapors from oil and other fluids seep into the planes “with alarming frequency across all airlines.” This can lead to chaos, confusion, ill flight crew, and passengers struggling to breathe.
Tellman was just one of hundreds who reported being sickened or impaired on flights in recent years. An LA Times analysis of NASA safety reports dating from January 2018 through December 2019 found a total of 362 fume events that were reported to the agency. Almost 400 pilots, flight attendants, and passengers received medical attention and during 73 of these flights, pilots used emergency oxygen.