Coronavirus and Aircraft Cabins
 

There must be a large number of aircraft by now that have carried passengers from quarantined areas who have later found to be infected with the corona virus. Has any form of disinfection/fumigation been carried out. Does anyone know if that might be a good idea? Given that there's a 14 day incubation period it looks as if otherwise the aircraft themselves mignt be carriers, as well as the passengers.

On 7th Feb, I travelled on an aircraft that arrived in London from HKG, was cleaned extensively (I later learnt) and departed for another destination. Now, 18 days later, I am still free of symptoms, as are the other four people who travelled with me.

There are increasing calls for a complete ban on international air travel. That may sound ridiculous right now, but it does make me wonder what the situation will be like 2 months from now.

How many Cabin Crew, Flight Crew, maintenance staff, catering staff, cleaning staff etc have been reported sick with this virus?

The madness and hysteria over this is somewhat ridiculous

I wonder if you will be saying that in 6 months time ZFT? I think the spread of the virus is still in its infancy.

Maybe a benefit will be more businesses making more use of teleconferencing for meetings. In a strange way, we are currently very lazy about jumping on a plane rather than organising a proper teleconf. This could be the trigger that mainstreams remote working/meeting.

We will see but whilst I'm not a keyboard warrior I recall reading that globally around half a million people die annually from seasonal flu with around 1,500 being in the UK and anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 in USA (yet the take up of flu jabs is very low!!) so why the hysteria of this strain of flu?.

Well I have not noticed any drop off in passenger on my regular routes in Europe or down to Middle East yet and nobody wearing masks onboard either yet. As others have said Flue does kill significant numbers each year. Intresting that UK govt stocking up on anti Malarial drugs as it is thought it may help those with the virus. As for video conferencing we have done it since the 80 ,s but still find it is often better to see progress and projects/ people in person as things somehow get missed or misinterpreted and of course people will lie !
Cheers
Mr Mac

Not sure how many cabins need to cleaned.

Sadly, Out of JFK T1 we have extensive cancellations on CA and MU to PEK and PVG respectively. KE loads, from looking across at their checkin counters, it's hard to see many pax. Air Italy soon gone. EVA and Philippines seem like light loads. Overall the terminal is unusually deserted as we push back AF009 at 23h55 these days.

Plenty of mask wearers in Manchester and Edinburgh airports last week and on flights from Africa coming into UK.

Dare one ask just how the aircraft are cleaned/deep cleaned internally after a suspected/confirmed Coronavirus flight ?

Masks out in abundance on last Thursday’s BA0268 LAX-LHR which had just flown LHR-LAX.

Could have shown a whole slew of passengers at the gate in masks, but chose this photo as an example of LAX mask chic.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6c986bb0f.jpeg

"The most crucial (and overdue) risk communication task for the next few days is to help people visualize their communities when “keeping it out” – containment – is no longer relevant. The P word <Pandemic> is a good way to launch this message."
"But the P word alone won’t help the public understand what’s about to change: the end of most quarantines, travel restrictions, contact tracing, and other measures designed to keep “them” from infecting “us,” and the switch to measures like canceling mass events designed to keep us from infecting each other."

https://virologydownunder.com/past-t...l-prepare-now/

LA what more can I say 🙂 Just come in from Munich to LHR today and no masks. Also only 1nr seen on the tube today. Returning North on the train from Kings Cross and no masks seen. I do think this is all getting a little out of hand and some posters on this site seem to take a great delight in dramatising things, even more so. In my company we operate world wide and will continue to do so unless there are restrictions in place which precludes us doing our work. It is winter in northern hemisphere and we get cold and flue and some unfortunately die but life goes on. Also road deaths take a steady toll year in year out without so much fuss, and nobody says lets stop driving!
Cheers
Mr Mac

Well despite the silly color scheme, that mask that dude is wearing is one of the few types that really do offer some degree of protection from inhaling potential disease particles. Those paper masks in China are really a waste of effort.

Lufthansa have just emailed me to promote European fares for march with a triple bonus of M&Ms, so it really is starting to bite.

I came back from Vietnam about four weeks ago with Thai airways via Bangkok; the cabin was sprayed before take-off (not sure what with, it smelt a bit like standard household air freshener to be honest).
I have seen this before during nasty insect season, but we were a bit early for that.
Cabin crew wore cotton surgical masks except for meal / drinks service, which all seemed a bit pointless. I guess the current business Guru's would call it "Best efforts".
Short answer - nobody knows for sure. Keep personal hygiene up to scratch, clean what you can with steri-wipes, but you can't stop public life!

Tldmcl
The spraying is pretty standard in many countries, so I would not read much into that. As you say clean down surfaces and clean your hands. As an aside I always, without fail ,wipe down the seat arms and remotes etc with the hot towels on A/C that you are given on some carriers, and use wipes when not available. It is quite interesting to see how much dirt is on them never mind germs. Interestingly we have a friend who is a commercial pilot who does the same routine in the cockpit as well just because he always did this from RAF days, but no White gloves yet !!

Kind regards
Mr Mac

BA to Bologna Tuesday, circa 15 pax. EasyJet to Bologna Wednesday circa 40 pax.

No point in holidaying in northern Italy since the attractions are closed. Business travel to Italy almost non existent.

most pleasant journey I’ve had for a while!

Yes, seen this a number of times; regarding your comments about seat arms etc., hotel room TV remotes are just about the first thing to get the steri-wipe treatment when I go anywhere! Hotel -provided glasses and cups in the room just simply don't get used. I'm not a mad clean freak, but there are certain things which are out of bounds for me.