BA Policy for Insect Spraying
 

Seeing as most big organisations seem to have a policy for every eventuality...(please don't take this post toooooo seriously :D )

When do BA decide it is necessary to spray the aircraft cabin with pesticide?

Just returned on PLS-LHR. Departed PLS at 19:25 which is about 2:25 after sunset...so just the right time for those pesky mosquitos to swarm around.

Was about a 300-400 yard walk outside from the gate to the aircraft that had arrived on its leg from NAS. It sat around with the cabin doors open whilst refeulling, loading etc.

No prizes for guessing the next bit...the cabin (at least WT but would expect the rest as well) had lots of new flying/biting friends on board. Wasn't too long before they had a couple of hundred meals walking up the steps. (Even the mosquitos avoid the All Day Deli :D )

So once the cabin doors were shut for the 12 hr flight the fun started.

Front WT cabin I visually locked-on to around 20-30 "friends" within the first few minutes. Fortunately still had the DEET handy in my carry-on luggage.

The crew seemed to be the first victims (luckily they escaped about an hour later on at NAS stop)...but fresh food arrived for the "friends" in the form of the NAS-LHR crew. They appeared much sweeter so must have been the BA cheesecake desert.

Feeding activity appeared to die down after four hours or so, suspect this was a combination of too much food and creative use of high-velocity High-Life magazines (Shopping the World appears slightly too thin and lightweight for effective mosquito termination).

It was also an old 767 with the cute dummy panels where the in-seat screen should have been and didnt have NCW.

Enhancement for when it gets its NCW re-fit might be integrated mosquito nets for the premium cabins :D

Anyhow, guess i need to be slightly more serious...I remember being on the old LHR-SEZ that stopped en-route in NBO. At NBO (in both directions) the cabin was sprayed. Is this only done in places that might have Malaria or Yellow Fever or something equally as nasty???

I remember many moons ago I used to fly BCal LGW-Bermuda-Tampa, and the cabin was always sprayed inbound to Bermuda. Pretty gross for a few moments, and some people find those chemicals affect them.

But on an AA flight MIA-Buenos Aires about five years ago, no spraying after departure from MIA and the cabin was riddled with flies and mosquitoes which made for a horrid flight.

Would much rather the cabin was sprayed where appropriate.

In Thailand they do spray
 

Flew BKK-LHR a month ago and they sprayed the entire cabin before departure. Was told it was a requrement from the British government. And that was on a midnight departure.

Has anyone ever read Down to a Sunless Sea?

It's 1985 and the US is in turmoil after a massive rise in oil prices leads to a total collapse of civilised society.

A BA Jumbo departs a wrecked New York with a cargo of 600 refugees, hoping to make a new life in Britain, a country under martial law but still surviving.

Whilst 2 hours into the Atlantic crossing, the balloon goes up between the USSR and what remains of the USA.

BA Ops in London broadcasts an 'Armada' signal: open the black envelope in the cockpit. Signed by the Chairman and the Flight Operations Director, it says "You're on your own; save as many as you can."

One by one, alternate airfields are blown off the map (including "Bahrein" :( ). The end of the world is nigh.......



(Oh...GF spray all the time coming into LHR.)

The crews often spray out of JNB, despite the fact that the region has no malaria (only beginning around Kruger Park and the Lowveld); sometimes they do not. I have also had the aircraft sprayed out of Nairobi and Entebbe, and both are malaria areas (I got malaria in Uganda :td: ).

I think the official policy is that airlines only spray when returning to the mother land from the colonies that are in malaria areas.

They spray coming back from GRU as well which is equally as pointless. I seem to remember that it is claimed to be 'due to UK government regulations'. Same guy that mandates the plastic cutlery probably. I mean, even if the bloody things DID get on the plane in the first place, can they seriously be expected not to dry out in that feable excuse for air or survive all the farts? :D

BA flights from Lagos, Nigeria, are always sprayed for fear of malaria carrying mosquitoes. I believe that is their policy; spray cabins where malaria is still a problem.

When spraying in areas where there is no malaria, they could be concerned about transmission of insects which could be of economic concern to the UK (e.g. non native pests). There have been at least two introductions of non-native pest insects brought about by air travel... we can rely on climate a lot to protect us, but not entirely or completely...

But why don't they do it consistently? I don't know. Government doesn't have to make sense :D

(The other thing to note is the insecticide is going to be pretty nasty stuff - not the kind of thing I'd like to be inhaling regularly as a frequent flier/crew)

I think they may have just changed that rule to apply to 'countries' now. ;)

I think you got the dates wrong. Shouldn't that read 'November 4th, 2004'??

Just returned from Dubai and plane was sprayed. Not too bad however