Humidifiers on Aircraft
 

Are any other Airlines out there deactivating Humidifiers on flight decks like Qantas is presently doing on the B767 and the B744?

BA did it 7 years ago. Replaced them with Ozone generators (ionisers). The humidifiers had a nasty habit of leaking on Pax heads, and had a high failure rate so were replaced.

Virgin 744s had them for the flight deck only. They were removed about 4 years ago - the given reason being they were causing corrosion on the contacts of the switches on the overhead panel.

reason for deactivation is that the calcium in the water deposits itself in places where you dont want it.... like the switches in the fire handles. Could be a problem if you need to fire the bottles.

Have actually seen the corrosion on the back of the ovehead panel from a 747-400 due to condensation. The fire handle contacts were so badly corroded they didn't actually work......!

One of the last steps of the EI to deacticate the humidifier, is to change the fire handles.