Question about fuel fumes/smell in cabin

[Kendo66]

I flew with A-Jet from Cyprus in July 2006 (after a 14 hour delay!) and before we took off there was a strong smell of fuel in the cabin. The cabin crew seemed unconcerned and reassured the anxious pax that it was normal. As you may have guessed, we arrived without further upset.

However i dont ever remember being able to smell jetfuel in the cabin on any other flights ive been on. I did a bit of googling after the flight to find out the the airline used to be called Helios - and the reason for our delay was a faulty air con unit.

This may seem of no consequence, except it seems as if the Helios/A-Jet craft that crashed in 2005 was of the same type as the one i flew in. Does this indicate some common fault in the type of air con system installed in the Helios jets? Was there ever any definitive answer to the reason for the 2005 crash?

[Globaliser]

Does this indicate some common fault in the type of air con system installed in the Helios jets? Was there ever any definitive answer to the reason for the 2005 crash?Yes there was, and there was no fault in the air conditioning system. See this page for some brief details.

You'll probably get better answers later from those with technical knowledge - but airport air generally smells of fuel, for obvious reasons. The air supplied to the cabin is just drawn in from outside and pumped into the cabin. So it's no surprise when the air inside the cabin sometimes smells of fuel, too, when you're on the ground.

[Rainboe]

Aircon systems draw air in from outside. If the exhaust from another aeroplane is being blown towards your plane, or your own exhaust is being blown by a strong wind back towards the intakes, you will pick up smells from outside. Sometimes even minor fuel spill fumes may get drawn in. The refuelller has to walk through the cabin to the pilots after fuelling, and sometimes they are quite liberally drenched with the odour, and you may pick this up! I occasionally tell them I think their after-shave sucks- OK they've heard it 100 times or more, but it makes me laugh, and that's all that matters! Don't worry about it.

If you are concerned about Helios, there is a search function! It's all there, do your own research!

[angels]

When I lived in Hong Kong, the wonderful approach to Kai Tak aside, one of the delights of arriving was the pong from the stagnant water on the port side!!

There was a name for that area (the nullah??), but no matter how hermetically sealed you were inside the aircraft, on a hot, sultry and still, day it did'n' arf pen and ink!