A former pilot in the UK has claimed about cases of people who fell ill after inhaling contaminated air inside the plane, although the government says the smoke leaks are extremely rare.Dr Susan Michaelis previously often fly with Qantas in Australia before eventually stopping because of medical reasons. He believes the cause of his illness because of exposure to toxic smoke fumes from the aircraft. Meanwhile, Dr Michaelis said, "This is one of the biggest problems the airline industry has faced since the first. Namely, if the air in aircraft is safe or not. And, whether breathing the air in the plane in the long term is safe or not."
As quoted from the Press Association, Sunday (27 / 3), a spokesman for the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) said most pilots in the UK do not see the air in the plane as a common problem. "The issue of toxic air in aircraft cabins is a controversial thing," he said. "Some pilots believe this is a common problem, but most pilots do not agree."
Since 2006, there have been seven incidents involving toxic fumes were reported to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and one for Balpa. The incident shows that there are indeed toxic substance that has been leaked somewhere on an airplane. Noted, there are 270 incidents that engine oil leak oil and smoke entered the cabin.
Thus, Dr Michaelis suggested to install a warning system in the cockpit of an aircraft to detect smoke. "If you are in the plane and smelled a strange, usually it is the smoke from the oil. The passengers will not be conscious about it. The crew was not going to know if passengers will be hurt, though perhaps not berkitan illness. But in fact some people have fallen ill and is serious. "
British Department of Transport spokesman said: "We are very concerned about the health of passengers. For that, we planned the study to find out tengan exact cause of this condition. Leakage of smoke in the cabin is a rare, but we'll keep doing this research and the results will help us to decide on action needed. "
source: (http://www.mediaindonesia.com/mediahidupsehat/index.php/read/2011/03/30/3881/2/Kualitas-Udara-di-Pesawat-Dipertanyakan)
