Pilots protest over 'noxious' air
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7053925.stm

Some crew at a leading budget airline are refusing to fly part of the company's fleet saying poor air quality is putting them and passengers at risk.
Crew from Exeter-based Flybe say they are scared to work on the company's British Aerospace 146 fleet.........

DISCUSS

Well done Guys & Girls. A proper stand in relation to the oil fumes has been long overdue. Just wish our crews had the temerity to stand up when we had the146's.

Good article in aussie newspapers about Qantas flight crew being affected on 767 and 747.

I knew about the 146, but had no idea other a/c posed any problem like this.

Whaddya reckon?

... heard this is a "feature" of the Trent 500 on the A3456 as well..?! :confused:

Regards,
J.V.

I wonder how much money FlyBe got from British Aerospace ,they paid off other airlines!!!
Dont expect help from the CAA or COT they are there to ignore the problem!
When i wrote to the CAA about fumes a year ago there response was that it was something between me and my company!

Spineless ,the lot of them.
The only people who might be interested are the AAIB but only if there are bodies scatered all over the place



Neil

Interesting that the article gives the impression the 146 is a 7-crew aircraft. Very fortunately on the flight where 2 CC became completely incapacitated, there was positioning crew on board. At least 1 of the crew involved has now given up flying completely following that incident - a great pity.

reading with interest the report that the crew had to be taken to hospital afterwards - how many people reading the report are aware of a SIL from bae that states after such an incident that crew have to have blood tests performed ASAP??
oil contamination of the packs can also be down to the apu, and smell is sometimes noted when changing over to apu air - simply because the apu air is hotter so will burn/vapourise any residual oil in the pack

regular pack burns can reduce the smells and is also suggested.

neil armstrong
Send me a PM about the above.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/airtransport/aviation.htm
Try Complaining to the HSE if the CAA aren't prepared to listen

Why after 25 years of the 146 and variants in service is this issue only arising now? I'm not doubting there is an issue there, we've seen many posts around here over the last year or two about it but what's the story?

perhaps there has been a change in mx practice and the problem is more prevelent now. an airline I worked for had BAE146's when they were brand new... a real mx hog. I can imagine a cheap airline might not take all the pride in mx that they should

DR Kev
Not a new problem on the 146, it was evident when I flew them back in 1990, in fact my former partner was a F/A who became ill in 1993 following an extreme exposure on the ground and never flew again!!

This problem has been around since the comet!

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=281345

http://www.aerotoxic.org/


Very sobering reading.

We used to burn off the packs first thing too, but the practice stopped, thankfully, before I joined our 146 fleet.

The only answer to these aircraft is to breed first officers with eyes in the top of their heads. The automatic cabin temp is crap, the manual control marginal and and any large power setting change requires a good look up and tweek on a lot of the older hulls.

Basically, the pack valves are ****e, they fill with crap, are notoriously difficult to respond to small signals from the automatic settings and are also a bitch to get out and clean up for engineers.

If you let the duct temps rise, you will get nasty smells. Simple. Unfortunately, in a two crew aircraft, you can't always keep looking and sometimes it's the smell that alerts you to look up and tend to the temps.

I hope the Q400 is better in this respect!;)

A related link to this issue is the radio article that appeared today (Sunday 21 Oct) on the Rachel Burden's BBC radio station 5Live:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/
The article starts 1 hr 33 mins into the programme - no need to listen to the whole thing, just fast fwd to 1:33

CORRECTION
Its much easier to click on the link below which ILoadMyself has provided, then select 'cabin fever'. Thank you ILM!

Apologies if this is already known, but Private Eye have been running with this story for a while.
I haven't caught up with their story for a month or so ...............

Better link direct to programme is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainf...ivelive/burden

as we "SHOULD :rolleyes:" all know that the only cause of contamination is via engines or apu due to leaking oil seals( apu less likely) then as applevid has said maybe maintenace practice is the cause but i doubt it as no other eurpoen airline is having such great numbers of events.

might also be down to engineers not recognizing the tell tale oil stains or choosing to ignore it - which knowing a few UK CAA engineers i find hard to believe

ANOTHERFLAP OPERATOR: just a quick correction to your last writing if you dont mind?

the pack valves are a simple on/off valve and nothing to do with temperature control - the temp control valve however funnily enough controls the temperature it is however very easy to replace...the pack valve is a different story and can take upto about 4 - 5 hours. depending on the mod status of the pack valve it is a very simple process to replace the pack valve filters but if its an older unit lets say it can "be fun!" :bored:

:rolleyes:I flew the 146 for 17 years, and like a great many 146 crew, never had the slightest problem. It should be remembered that this was first started by a bitter Ansett hostie, and in the last few years, kept on the boil by a demoted captain.