Originally Posted by
.Scott
What makes me suspicious of the CO diagnosis is the method of recovery. Normally, the patients would be given oxygen to breath and that would reduce their CO levels by 50% every 80 minutes. Walking around in fresh air (as is reported) reduces CO levels (actually, the COHb level) by 50% every 320 minutes (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon...ning#Treatment).
I think we need to consider this scenario: Many passengers smoked before boarding the plane - and those smokers had a lower tolerance for the reduced cabin air pressure. Some of these passengers and perhaps some others got sick during the flight so the flight landed. On landing, many of the sick passengers had elevated CO levels from smoking - but not elevated so much that the were offered oxygen therapy.
Regarding CO levels: Home detectors can detect 1 or 2 parts per million (ppm), flu-like symptoms start at 35 ppm, loss of judgement starts at 200 ppm, convulsions within 45 minutes at 800 ppm, death in less than 2 hours at 1600 ppm.
During a power outage in my town that lasted several days, I was with a volunteer group that worked with the Fire Department. We went home to home checking on the use of generators. Improperly positioned generators resulted in levels of 35 and 50 ppm at two homes. In both of those cases, fumes could be easily smelled. No symptoms were reported.
... or, there was CO on the plane and the low cabin pressure aggravated the effects of the CO poisoning.
Smokers fly every day, every flight (check out any airport smoking room). If smoking was the cause, it would happen every flight.
The CO diagnosis may turn out to be a red herring.... But smoking? No... We do not need to consider that. It is nonsense.