CHARLOTTE, Jan 04 2017 – A flight crew union has called for regulation of cabin air quality following a third instance of emitting fumes or odor on an American Airlines plane in the past three months.
In the latest incident, several flight attendants complained of headaches on an Orlando-bound flight this week.
Eight crew members on flight 1868 from Charlotte were examined and given a clean bill of health by paramedics at the airport but all but one ‘insisted’ they be taken to hospital, ABC News reported.
The airline said it is undertaking a ‘thorough maintenance inspection,’ of the A330 jet.
“The health and welfare of our crews and customers continue to be our top priority at American Airlines. We take cabin odor issues seriously and have devoted extensive efforts over time, including working with aircraft, engine and auxiliary power unit manufacturers, to address these types of concerns,” the airline said in a statement.
“Our technical operations team actively monitors and conducts in-depth inspections whenever a cabin odor event is reported by one of our crew members.”
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA wants to see more oversight at a federal level.
“The issue of oil-contaminated bleed air in the cabin continues to be a serious threat for crews to become impaired/incapacitated in-flight, and cause long-term and disabling health effects,” said union president Sara Nelson.
“We must all demand regulation of cabin air quality to protect flight crews and passengers.”
In recent service difficulty reports filed by the airline to the Federal Aviation Administration, the same plane suffered two other incidents including a ‘dirty sock odor’ on November 23.
Five days later another report was filed after flight attendants ‘smelled fumes’ on the aircraft.
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