BA Aircraft grounded - Radioactive Scare
 

ITV news are reporting 3 BA aircraft grounded, as radioactive scare. A/c grounded in UK and 1 in Moscow i gather.

Here`s the press release.....

British Airways has been advised that three of its Boeing 767 short haul aircraft have been identified by the UK government as part of the investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko.

The airline was contacted last night (Tuesday, November 28) by the government. It has taken the three B767s out of service to enable forensic examination to be carried out.
The initial results of the forensic tests, which was confirmed late this afternoon, has shown very low traces of a radioactive substance onboard two of the three aircraft.
British Airways has been advised that this investigation is confined solely to these three B767 aircraft, which will remain out of service until further notice.
British Airways understands that from advice it has been given that the risk to public health is low.
The airline is in the process of making contact with customers who have travelled on flights operated by these aircraft, which operate within Europe.
The airline has published the flights affected on its website, www.ba.com, and customers on these flights who wish to receive further advice are advised to telephone NHS Direct on 0845 4647. Only customers who have travelled on these specific flights are asked to telephone NHS Direct.
British Airways has set up a special helpline for customers and staff on 0845 6040171 or 0191 211 3690 for international calls.
Further information will be released as it becomes available and information will be posted on the airline's website.
ends
29 November, 2006 123/AP/06

aircraft affected are

G-BNWX
G-BNWB
G-BZHA

I flew G-BNWX on 6th October to Madrid on the BA461, Do we know when they were contaminated???

Were the traces found in the cabins or washrooms or in the hold I wonder....

A.

The numbers and people you need to be talking to are listed above.

Radiaton in ant1-statci devices
 

''Sufficient polonium-210 to kill several people is available in anti-static devices''
Would these perhaps include those fitted to aircraft?
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...npoison129.xml

Whether or not airport security have basic radioactivity detectors, I'd doubt this would have been detected. It's alpha radiation for a start so easy (relative to other types of radiation) to transport without the exposing oneself to harmful levels and without the need for lead or other metal pots that would be detected during screening.But, that's assuming material would have come through the airports. I doubt it'd be hard to get such material across or under the sea. Even easier via private transport as has been widely shown in the media recently.If the amounts present on board these affected aircraft are indeed at the low levels announced, then it's just as possible that they'd be there through secondary contact from a contaminated person/s or object as much as by transportation.

It's not that easy to detect unless there is a lot of it and you are looking for it carefully. Still, it sounds like somebody was tracking around a fair amount of it for it to be found in so many places. Labs that use radioactive compounds routinely check common surfaces for radioactive contamination.

The question is where they found it. If it was on surfaces that others may have touched with their hands, then put their hands in their mouth (e.g., chewing nails, licking their finger, contaminating food), that would be a problem. If they tracked it on the carpet, there is less likely of dangerous exposure.

Polonium-210 is an alpha emitter, and alpha particles do not travel very far. They are basically Helium atoms minus their electrons, so very heavy and easily stopped relaritive to beta particles or gamma rays. A layer of paint or some other simple substance, or even a relatively small amount of air is enough to stop them. They are bad if you ingest it and it stays inside your body blasting alpha particles at critical places.

It has a a half-life of 138 days, so you could let the jets sit around for several years and it will go away. There are ways to clean it up. :sad: :eek:

Edited to add that 11K-AVML posted while I was typing. So, what he said.

If you read up in Wikipedia about Polonium 210, this is potentially more than just a scare.

"The maximum allowable body burden for ingested polonium is only 1,100 becquerels (0.03 microcurie), which is equivalent to a particle weighing only 6.8 × 10-12 gram. Weight for weight, polonium is approximately 2.5 × 1011 (250 billion) times as toxic as hydrogen cyanide. The maximum permissible concentration for airborne soluble polonium compounds is about 7,500 Bq/m3 (2 × 10-11 µCi/cm3). The biological halflife of polonium in humans is 30 to 50 days.[10]"

I think it is safe to assume that whoever dosed Litvinenko with Polonium is himself already dead.

God help us if anyone else has been contaminated with it.

I operated as cabin crew on the ZHA twice last week, including DME. BA sent an e-mail detailing all the affected flights and have set up a help line for all crews.

Check ESS mail if you're worried.

I have to give a big thumbs up for they way they've dealt with things so far.:ok:

Watch this space I guess!

tsb

Hi,

The earliest date affected as per the BA website ias quoted as; 25th October

https://lfn.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/lfn...ni&p_lva=2432#

Regards

TBS

Security
 

So airport security in the U.K. have been taking tubes of toothpaste and yogurts of airline pilots but no one could detect polonium 210 passing through an airport? Makes you wonder:ugh:

Only thing it makes me wonder is if you actually read this thread. :ugh: :rolleyes: :D

Right, and by single deduction all started at flight BA875 Moscow to Heathrow, for sure UK police have the name of the responsible passenger.
Litvinenko was poisoned on November 1º.

Good grief - who would want to run an airline nowadays? Three aircraft grounded, thousands of people potentially affected, and the compensation lawyers gearing up for business!

Oh for the good old days when the worst thing that ever happened was a few stewards smuggling gold from Beirut! :hmm:

To me, Turin made a valid point that airport security are rigorously seeking out innocuous substances like toothpaste and yoghurt, while deadly substances like Polinium 210m can pass through unchallenged. Fair point?

It is worth bearing in mind that Polonium 210 emits alpha particles which do not pass through the skin. Alpha emitters need to be ingested or inhaled to cause serious harm.

So until it is explained exactly where these "traces" of radioactivity were found it's hard to know whether people are likely to be in significant danger.

And I as a Pilot are not allowed to take ***** eye drops in the name of security.

Hold on guys.

Polonium 210 is indeed VERY poisonous....if you eat it. It emits alpha radiation only, and that means that the radiation is incapable of even penetrating a piece of paper.

Yes, that's right, a simple piece of paper will stop the radiation. A foot of air will do the same, it will stop the alpha particles.

The problem starts when you eat polonium 210. (or otherwise ingest it, say, by inhaling a powder which contains Po 210)

But......trace amounts of polonium in airplanes will only cause mass hysteria and not necessarily a health hazard.

To the people worrying about airport security - if you put some of this stuff in your eye drop bottle, without getting any on the outside, then screwed the lid on it, there would be nothing to detect. Alpha particles as mentioned several times, cannot escape a container.

Also, Alpha particles are only harmful if emitted from inside the body. Unless you have somehow got the Polonium from a contaminated seat, into your body then you are at zero risk. If you have managed to get it in your body - perhaps by licking the seat or something, I'd say the dosage is likely to be too low to do any significant harm. (This is based on my undertstanding that the seat contamination has simply come from the sweat of contaminated individuals). Yes the stuff is harmful even at very very low doses. But the amount secreted in a bit of sweat is going to be a very very tiny amount of an already very very small dose.

Incidentally, you breath in Radon every time you sit watching TV in your lounge. Radon decays by Alpha emission too.

Also, just over 10% of cosmic radioation is made up of Alpha particles. Mind you, they don't even make it as far as the aircraft. It is the protons, and more seriously the Beta particles and Gamma rays you have to watch out for. Cosmic radiation is a subject that is taken far too lightly by the airlines in my view, and yet we as pilots and passengers don't seem to worry about it too much either. But we certainly should.