Jörg Handwerg wants the airline industry to start taking air contamination seriously
Report in German (PDF)
An interim investigation report reveals that a Germanwings
Airbus narrowly escaped disaster in 2010. The pilots nearly lost
consciousness when poisonous vapor is thought to have seeped into the
cockpit.
The Germanwings flight from Vienna to Cologne-Bonn
airport on 19 December 2010 appeared to be going normally. Take-off had
been delayed by two hours because of heavy snow at the destination
airport, but otherwise everything seemed fine.
Then, as they
started their descent towards Cologne-Bonn, the two pilots suddenly
became aware of a "strange, very strong, unpleasant" smell in the
cockpit, an investigation report of the incident revealed. They checked
with the chief purser, who said there were no unusual smells in the
passenger cabin.
Shortly after this the co-pilot felt so sick
that he grabbed his oxygen mask, and the pilot felt he was "quite
literally, losing my senses." There was a sudden, strong tingling
sensation in his hands and feet, his field of vision shrank, and he felt
dizzy.
Summoning their last reserves of strength, the two pilots
succeeded in safely landing the Airbus, which had 149 passengers on
board. Later, however, they told the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft
Accident Investigation that they had had extreme difficulty in
concentrating, and even in thinking clearly. Everything had seemed
"surreal" and "like in a dream."
Obviously they had only barely
succeeded in averting a disaster. But it's only now, almost two years
later, that the incident has been made public, in the Bureau's interim
report on its investigation.
Jörg Handwerg from the pilots'
association Cockpit told DW what he believes happened. "As far as we're
concerned, all the evidence points to this having been an oil vapor
incident. Oil vapors from the engines got into the cabin air via a
faulty seal."
Since the 1960s planes have usually been
constructed in such a way that they suck in air for the cockpit and the
passenger cabin via the two engines. Obtaining the air this way can be
risky, said Handwerg, "If a seal breaks, it's possible for a lot of oil
vapor to get into the cabins. In fact, for construction reasons, these
seals are never 100 percent closed. Small amounts of oil vapor always
seep into the cabin."
A well-known problem
Handwerg
said that, unfortunately, this is not the first incident of its kind,
although it is "extremely rare" for it to have such dramatic effects.
Green party delegate Markus Tressel told the German parliament on Friday
that over the past three years the authorities in Germany had logged 67
incidents involving contaminated air in the cabin.
In fact, the
same Germanwings plane had earlier been involved in another unexplained
incident. A flight from Dublin to Cologne in May 2008 was forced to turn
back after the pilot complained he had lost sensation in his arm and
that he and the cabin crew felt unwell.
After landing in Cologne
in December 2010 the plane was immediately thoroughly checked by
Germanwings engineers. They too noticed the smell in the cockpit, but
attributed it to the de-icing fluid with which the Airbus had been
treated several times that day.
Handwerg said he found this
explanation unconvincing. It's not uncommon for de-icing fluid to get
into the cabin in winter, he said. When this happens, the evaporating
alcohol creates a kind of "white fog," and doesn't have such serious
effects on the pilot's ability to function.
"The tingling in the
fingers, the signs of paralysis, as well as the reduced ability to think
clearly correspond precisely with experiences we've had of incidents
involving oil vapor, and not with experiences of de-icing fluid," he
said.
Business over security?
The pilots'
association Cockpit has for years called for planes to switch over to
systems that don't draw in cabin air across the engines. "Technically
speaking, new planes should not be built in such a way that it's
possible for something like this to happen. And we need filter
technology or sensors for the existing planes to reduce the problem as
much as possible."
The EASA does not see oil vapor contamination as a serious risk
Handwerg
was critical not only of Germanwings, who he claimed are playing down
the severity of the incident, but also of the European Aviation Safety
Agency. Early in 2012 the EASA said it could see no causal connection
between health-related complaints made by some pilots, crew members and
passengers and contamination of cabin air with oil vapor.
Germanwings
has defended itself against the accusations. It insists that it
reported the incident in the proper manner to the authorities
responsible, the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident
Investigation and the German Federal Aviation Authority.
The
airline's description of the incident was much less dramatic: "The
captain told Germanwings that despite his physical impairment he had
'everything under control at all times.'"
Source: http://www.dw.de
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