Cockpit Fumes ,757,Ba146
Hello again to all at DHL,as one who has suffered total loss of medical, and is classified under DHSS Criteria as incapacitated, let me tell you more.
The CAA has not got enough Historic Data Base to say whether this is long term or not!!I was told Boeing and Bae were investigating the fumes problems,but in the end considered these were only short term problems, which would be resolved by recovering on Days off and Leave!!
I still have copies of my MORs, which clearly state my Crew had blurred vision, headaches, sore throats, which were a definite hazard to Flight Safety. However it was only after several of these were put in to the Company, that the Belgian CAA were involved, and we got Air Samplers.
If you have proloned exposure to this you get inflamed sinuses which swell, and cause respiratory problems. With on and off exposure, this leads to the swelling not being able to go down, but gets worse and worse.
This gives you Hay Fever type symtoms-Runny nose, runny eyes, which lead to blocked ears and ear drum problems. Finally you get a strong sensation of the Leans, and all of this is most unpleasant, especially when doing Freezing Fog Cat2 let downs into Eastern Europe!!
The main symtoms do go away ,but come back again with increased exposure, and then get worse by degrees.T he last Safety Officer I dealt with actually thanked me for highlighting this, and told me 1-1, and definitely not in writing!, that the Company were delighted , because they had found that the Ducting Conduits,from Pac2 were contaminated from years of nasty substance build up, which had never been removed , since they were Freighter Aircraft from Build and so Pac 2 was not considered important, provided pressurisation was not compromised-How many Guys out there in Pax Aircraft have to shut down pac2 anyway and run on recirc air in the cabin to save Fuel costs???????, from time to time. This would then solve the problems so they told me , and thanked me for my time!!!
In my case,it could not be proven, whether the Fumes had caused Organophosphate Poisoning and that had resulted in Headaches, vision problems , sinus etc, OR that that was partially the situation, but the main cause was my secondary infection that these got worse and were responsible for my Loss of Medical.
As far as BUPA were concerned-"All official guidelines and protocol were adhered to,so NO case to answer". My Consultant Neurologist said categorically The Fumes must be the cause, because what else could have done it?? He would not put that in writing or give evidence to that effect.
Finally it was considered that having flown military aircraft,the continuous smells of Hydraulics, Oils, JP1, etc that pervade the cockpit all the time, this must have contributed to the long term problem. I pointed out that we flew almost all the time on Oxygen, and that flights were only 45 mins, and not 4 hours or more. This was ignored, and I was finally told that having flown for over 40 years I was lucky nothing else had gone wrong.
So with Courtesy to Oscar Brand and the Roger Wilco 4. "When my flying days are over,and they put me out to grass,please bury me upside down,so the World can kiss my arse!!!!!!!"