Toxic fumes on commercial flights are silently wreaking havoc, turning routine trips into life-altering nightmares for passengers and crew alike.
Daily Mail reported that a Wall Street Journal investigation has exposed a shocking surge in fume events on thousands of flights since 2010, causing severe brain injuries akin to those suffered by NFL players, with many incidents tied to Airbus A320 jets and other aircraft.
Let’s start with the harrowing story of flight attendant Florence Chesson, who, during a December 2017 flight to Puerto Rico on an Airbus A320, noticed a peculiar “dirty feet” smell in the cabin.
Chesson told the WSJ, “It started with a 'dirty feet' aroma.” Well, that’s one way to describe a potential health crisis—hardly the in-flight experience anyone signed up for when booking a ticket.
She soon felt dazed, confused, sweaty, and tasted metal in her mouth, later recounting to the WSJ, “I felt like I was talking gibberish.” If that doesn’t scream something’s terribly wrong at 30,000 feet, what does?
On that same flight, a colleague struggled to breathe and vomited, and after landing, two crew members were rushed to the hospital—one on a stretcher—while the plane casually continued to Boston as if nothing had happened.
Months later, Chesson’s symptoms worsened, leading to a grim diagnosis from Dr. Robert Kaniecki: permanent nervous system damage and traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Kaniecki noted to the WSJ that the impacts were “extraordinarily similar” to NFL players’ head trauma injuries. Now, isn’t it alarming that boarding a plane could rival the risks of a professional football career?
Dr. Kaniecki isn’t new to this; over two decades, he’s treated around 12 pilots and 100 flight attendants for similar brain injuries from fume exposure, pointing to a systemic issue the industry can’t just ignore.
JetBlue has also faced its share of toxic fume incidents, with passengers and crew suffering permanent brain injuries, showing this isn’t just an Airbus problem but a broader aviation safety concern.
Take another incident involving an American Airlines flight operated by American Eagle as a Bombardier CRJ900, where the cabin filled with smoke after landing at Augusta Regional Airport in Georgia following a trip from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Passengers were forced to evacuate—some crawling onto the wings and jumping to the ground—though thankfully, no injuries were reported, and the FAA is now investigating, as American Airlines confirmed to ABC 7 that “all passengers deplaned.”
Then there’s the startling case of a China Southern Airlines flight from Hangzhou to Shenzhen, where a power bank exploded shortly after takeoff, filling the cabin with thick, acrid smoke from an overhead locker on May 31.
Passengers panicked, but a quick-thinking flight attendant doused the smoldering battery with a fire extinguisher, and the pilot safely returned to Hangzhou International Airport just 15 minutes after takeoff, with the airline assuring no injuries occurred and offering assistance for the delay.
A spokesperson for China Southern Airlines stated, “The crew handled it properly.” Kudos for the swift action, but shouldn’t we be asking why dangerous items like exploding power banks are even making it onto planes in the first place?
