The investigation continues following the death announced Monday of a member of the Swiss crew who had been hospitalized after an emergency landing. The Airbus A220-300, operating the Bucharest-Zurich route, had to divert to Graz.
On December 23, a Swiss flight connecting Bucharest to Zurich had to make an emergency landing in Austria due to smoke present in the aircraft. This incident revealed a previously unknown defect on an Airbus A220-300 engine, which will be dismantled and examined in the United States. A member of the crew, hospitalized after this event, died, and an autopsy is planned to determine the exact causes of his death.
>> Read also on the death of the steward: Swiss crew member dies hospitalized in Graz after emergency landing
Pierre Raimondi, general practitioner and aviation doctor at the Federal Office of Civil Aviation, was invited to Forum to shed some light. According to him, the air quality in planes is generally excellent, as the air is changed every three minutes.
The reactor problem
But problems can arise if a reactor malfunctions. “When there is a problem with the reactor and things start to burn in the reactor, there may be smoke emanations which will be captured by the air intake which should allow ventilation of the plane and the fumes will enter the plane at that time.”
>> Read again about the “defect” of the plane: A “previously unknown defect” in the engine of the Swiss Airbus which made an emergency landing in Graz
He also specifies that the reactors are used not only to bring air into the plane, but also to heat it. Due to the tightness of the plane, air has to get in somewhere, and jet engines are ideal for this. The heat they generate is used to warm the air.
Security measures
Pierre Raimondi emphasizes that inhalation of smoke can cause toxicity in the respiratory tract and the central nervous system, up to periods of coma and serious damage to the brain and lungs, “and this can – be what happened to that steward.”
Faced with these situations, the use of oxygen masks is a partial solution, according to the doctor. In case of fire risk, the addition of oxygen may increase the risk of explosion. Additionally, the masks not only provide pure oxygen, but mix the oxygen with the air already present in the cabin, which can be contaminated by fumes.
As for the cabin crew, they have more advanced equipment. But the reaction time to put them on may be insufficient to avoid inhaling toxic particles.
Comments collected by Coralie Claude
Adaptation web: itg
