Dry Ice on board an aircraft

[Boss du Manche]

In my company they keep the sandwiches cool by packing it in dry ice. In the Dangerous Goods Manual, it says that the handling-agent is only allowed to enter the cargohold, if filled with dry ice, 5 minutes after opening the door.

My question is: Is dry ice dangerous in the way my company uses it. Can it harm on the long term and what are dangers behind using dry ice in this situation.

I think personally that nobody has looked at the situation at all, and the only consideration was to cool the sandwiches (which by the way are not good at all)

[bookworm]

The danger is from asphyxiation. An atmosphere of gaseous carbon dioxide (which is what dry ice sublimes into) is not poisonous as such, but it can displace the oxygen in an environment with poor ventilation, leaving none to breathe.

It would make sense for the handling agent not to access the compartment alone if there's any possibility of this, preferably with supervision from the outside.

Of course dry ice can also burn (it's cold) but I don't think that's what the manual is concerned about and it's not something that time can solve.

[Buzzoff]

A very witty (and very pretty) cabin crew member in an airline for whom I once 'guested' for a couple of months put some in my coffee - the effect was superb - it looked exactly like the boiling brew that Boris Karloff would have drunk before turning into a werewolf or the monster from the deep.

And before you say it, yes, I know that it was juvenile, I know it might have burned me if I was stupid enough to touch it...OK? (Looks really vile in tomato juice too)

[A Very Civil Pilot]

....but it sure is fun, isn't it.

[Arkroyal]

Doing the Boris Karloff routine in the galley recently, only to turn round and find the passengers boarding unanounced. Oops, juvenile, and embarrassing.

In my cargo days we used to get notified of Dry Ice as DAC. It was only after a weather div to LPL, when the loaders ran away, that we found out what was packed in the said ice. Human blood samples containing all manner of nasty disease.

[samsonyte]

Dry ice displaces oxygen, and so the danger is from oxygen starvation. It's only CO2 and so no long term danger other than the obvious.

It's something that needs to be looked out for if animals are being taken in the rear hold.