First Officer on a CRJ
I was a first officer on a CRJ - Canadair Regional Jet aircraft flying for European regional carrier. During flying we were quite often smelling unpleasant odour, specially on older aircrafts was this smell quite often present. It was more prominent after start-ups and on initial climbs and also during late stages of descent and approaches. Sometimes I had burning eyes and oily taste in my mouth. A lot of times I feel a bit dizzy then and have problem to concentrate. Most crew didn’t bother much about it and it was usually discarded as an air conditioning moisture etc... At that time I didn’t know anything about air toxicity problem in aviation and I didn’t pay much attention even by my self.
After about four to five years of flying on jets , at age of mid thirties, my health slowly starting to deteriorate. First I was diagnosed with mild pulmonary obstruction, I was constantly discharging mucous and have soar throat. I started to become tired and exhausted, I have problems to a fell asleep and sleep badly. I was quite active in recreational sport and found it more and more difficult to cope. It was usually better after longer vacation. Later on I started to have some balance problems, tinglings in legs and hands, problems with concentration and memory, heart palpitations. I started to feel quite bad when flying. As a former enthusiastic sailplane pilot I always like manual flying and like to make manual raw data approaches and landings. It was really fun for me. But then I found it very challenging. Specially night landings become really a nightmare. Scanning cycle became very slow and I had to concentrate very hard not to “stay behind the airplane”. And not to mention night flares (touch downs). I was starting to use “any landing you can walk away from is a good landing” philosophy.
As my health had been slowly deteriorating and fatigue didn’t disappear I started to vist many doctors. There were no diagnosis. Then we had some more evident problems with certain aircrafts. There were constant strong odur on some and crew starting to complain. Sometimes we were instructed not to use APU as to be blamed for odour, next time they decided that the engine is the core of the problem and then we didn’t use air conditioning packs on take offs till FL100 and make upressurized T/O etc ... I believe that there were many ATL logs about those problems and technicians try to solve the problem but never fully succeeded. Some crew started to be aware of the airtoxicity and it was then when I started to read about it. More I read more I was convinced that my health problems were surely connected to the contaminated air in the airplanes. There was even the initiative from the Union to have tested volunteers blood after flying but at the end the company suppressed it.
Year ago I started to feel so weak, fatigued and unable to mentaly cope with the demands of my job and even family and so I took a sick leave. It was an evening flight to Amsterdam. I was pilot flying on that leg and on approach I feel very bad. I had strange tingling on my back, I almost had no feelings in my feet, my hands were stiff and weak. On a way back I was PNF and made a decision to myself that I can not continue like that anymore. Somewhere behind in a corner of my head there was a thought that this might be my last flight ... And so it was.
Now roughly a year after my last flight , at age of early forties, I still suffer from the symptoms of Aerotoxic Syndrome and I hope they won’t last life long. I was extensively tested by neuropsychologist and was diagnosed with cognitive impairment. I have been diagnosed with asthma with further lung examinations still in progress. Blood tests from USA and my local neurologist suggests neural injury. I am still fatigued, have memory problems, stiff limbs and muscles pain and had to quit or reduce almost all my sport activities. Mornings are usually really awful. I have problems to cope with family matters etc...
I can not believe that the problem of contaminated air lasts already more then 50 years and that nothing has been done so far. I can not understand that the people involved are so quiet. So many crews all over the world and so little complaints? I don’t think this is an issue for just a few percent of sensitive people. It is a world wide problem!
I would like to stay anonymous since I am still officialy employed by the carrier. back to previous page
I was a first officer on a CRJ - Canadair Regional Jet aircraft flying for European regional carrier. During flying we were quite often smelling unpleasant odour, specially on older aircrafts was this smell quite often present. It was more prominent after start-ups and on initial climbs and also during late stages of descent and approaches. Sometimes I had burning eyes and oily taste in my mouth. A lot of times I feel a bit dizzy then and have problem to concentrate. Most crew didn’t bother much about it and it was usually discarded as an air conditioning moisture etc... At that time I didn’t know anything about air toxicity problem in aviation and I didn’t pay much attention even by my self.
After about four to five years of flying on jets , at age of mid thirties, my health slowly starting to deteriorate. First I was diagnosed with mild pulmonary obstruction, I was constantly discharging mucous and have soar throat. I started to become tired and exhausted, I have problems to a fell asleep and sleep badly. I was quite active in recreational sport and found it more and more difficult to cope. It was usually better after longer vacation. Later on I started to have some balance problems, tinglings in legs and hands, problems with concentration and memory, heart palpitations. I started to feel quite bad when flying. As a former enthusiastic sailplane pilot I always like manual flying and like to make manual raw data approaches and landings. It was really fun for me. But then I found it very challenging. Specially night landings become really a nightmare. Scanning cycle became very slow and I had to concentrate very hard not to “stay behind the airplane”. And not to mention night flares (touch downs). I was starting to use “any landing you can walk away from is a good landing” philosophy.
As my health had been slowly deteriorating and fatigue didn’t disappear I started to vist many doctors. There were no diagnosis. Then we had some more evident problems with certain aircrafts. There were constant strong odur on some and crew starting to complain. Sometimes we were instructed not to use APU as to be blamed for odour, next time they decided that the engine is the core of the problem and then we didn’t use air conditioning packs on take offs till FL100 and make upressurized T/O etc ... I believe that there were many ATL logs about those problems and technicians try to solve the problem but never fully succeeded. Some crew started to be aware of the airtoxicity and it was then when I started to read about it. More I read more I was convinced that my health problems were surely connected to the contaminated air in the airplanes. There was even the initiative from the Union to have tested volunteers blood after flying but at the end the company suppressed it.
Year ago I started to feel so weak, fatigued and unable to mentaly cope with the demands of my job and even family and so I took a sick leave. It was an evening flight to Amsterdam. I was pilot flying on that leg and on approach I feel very bad. I had strange tingling on my back, I almost had no feelings in my feet, my hands were stiff and weak. On a way back I was PNF and made a decision to myself that I can not continue like that anymore. Somewhere behind in a corner of my head there was a thought that this might be my last flight ... And so it was.
Now roughly a year after my last flight , at age of early forties, I still suffer from the symptoms of Aerotoxic Syndrome and I hope they won’t last life long. I was extensively tested by neuropsychologist and was diagnosed with cognitive impairment. I have been diagnosed with asthma with further lung examinations still in progress. Blood tests from USA and my local neurologist suggests neural injury. I am still fatigued, have memory problems, stiff limbs and muscles pain and had to quit or reduce almost all my sport activities. Mornings are usually really awful. I have problems to cope with family matters etc...
I can not believe that the problem of contaminated air lasts already more then 50 years and that nothing has been done so far. I can not understand that the people involved are so quiet. So many crews all over the world and so little complaints? I don’t think this is an issue for just a few percent of sensitive people. It is a world wide problem!
I would like to stay anonymous since I am still officialy employed by the carrier. back to previous page
