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Caught headcold on EK209

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Old Feb 8, 2018 | 2:14 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by skywardhunter
What does "boost the air" mean? Do you mean increase the air conditioning (i.e. make it colder? warmer?)

Airplanes don't have to pull over to fill up on air, nor is air charged at $1/litre or whatever, I assume you refer to fuel saving, which would be extraordinarily insignificant. Regardless, the cabin temperature is not controlled by the pilots, but rather by the cabin supervisor with the touch-screens in the cabin, with each "section" of each cabin being individually controlled. If your request ever gets to the pilot they're certainly having a laugh at it

The quantity of air in the cabin, since you appear to refer to that as well, is static, and very carefully controlled, as this determines the pressure altitude of the cabin, usually 3000-6000ft.
If that's the case then the FA did me a disservice, I complained about the excessive amount of air blowing straight at me and she pointed to the ceiling, said it was the a/c and continued on her way. It was so uncomfortable that I even placed a jacket over my head. I was seated on row 19.

On occasions when I asked to "boost the air", the cabin felt hot with no air coming out of the overhead vents.
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Old Feb 8, 2018 | 2:17 pm
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Originally Posted by boboqui
If that's the case then the FA did me a disservice, I complained about the excessive amount of air blowing straight at me and she pointed to the ceiling, said it was the a/c and continued on her way. It was so uncomfortable that I even placed a jacket over my head. I was seated on row 19.

On occasions when I asked to "boost the air", the cabin felt hot with no air coming out of the overhead vents.
And you closed the adjustable air vent that was blowing at you?
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Old Feb 8, 2018 | 2:20 pm
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Originally Posted by aeropix
Back in the 1990's Northwest Airlines had an experimental program for fuel saving across the pacific. They would shut down one (or two I can't remember) engine bleeds and one of the Packs (Air conditioners) during cruise. I remember riding jumpseat on a few of those flights with a friend of mine. The pilots specially briefed the cabin crew that they would be shutting down the pack and to call the cockpit if it got too "stuffy" in the back. Well, that was the old smoking days on the Tokyo Run so this program failed miserably, predictably, and quickly. After one summer trial, the air was not switched off any more!

In any event, this was back on the old 747-200 with a flight engineer that had a bit more granular control over these systems. On today's aircraft this would not be possible, as the air systems are all computer optimized. So the bottom line is there is no "boosting" nor "starving" of the air supplies. It's running all the time regardless.
Is this true for the old 767s that AA flies?
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Old Feb 8, 2018 | 2:25 pm
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Originally Posted by skywardhunter
And you closed the adjustable air vent that was blowing at you?
​​​​​​Yes, even after I reached over and closed the air vent in the middle row the air was still bowing on me, I remember searching for its source but did not find it.
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Old Feb 8, 2018 | 8:51 pm
  #20  
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I'm pretty sure most colds have an incubation period of longer than eight hours or so.
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Old Feb 9, 2018 | 2:17 am
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Originally Posted by boboqui
​​​​​​Yes, even after I reached over and closed the air vent in the middle row the air was still bowing on me, I remember searching for its source but did not find it.
The middle vents in Y can be a bit misleading - if you are sitting in say D, sometimes its air flowing from the vent above F/G thats blowing on to you (e.g. other pax have moved them for much the same reasons as you!)
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Old Sep 5, 2018 | 8:19 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by boboqui
Definitely! Luckily I was fine during the entire 7-day trip to Athens and Israel. The reason I question the air venting at full blast is that I often complain that there's not enough air and ask the fa to tell the pilot to boost the air, and this the first time I got sick right after flying (mostly long-haul) for the past 40 years.
im wondering if the investigation of todays flight where 100 people got sick will reveal that EK did not maintain the air filters properly.
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Old Sep 6, 2018 | 2:23 am
  #23  
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Probably not!

Id be fairly confident Emirates air filters would have nothing to do with this, otherwise youd see it happening on a regular basis! This sort of thing happens rarely, but does happen and doesnt tend to favour one airline over another. Just consider that many people are in close proximity for a long time. For example, it seems to happen quite regularly on cruise ships, where of course the incubation period is longer. They of course dont have Emirates air filters though!

Also, pilots are unable to boost air. Whatever that means.
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Old Sep 6, 2018 | 2:28 am
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If it is MERS, I'd hate to think what the US government would do to the ME3.
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Old Sep 6, 2018 | 3:06 am
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Yes they do. Often in the region of 2-5 days for the 'common cold' viruses. Only influenza viruses have really short (average) incubation periods of about 1.5 days for influenza A and about half a day for influenza B (mostly caught by children).

You can see the science here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4327893/
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Old Sep 6, 2018 | 3:36 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by sydtogla
If it is MERS, I'd hate to think what the US government would do to the ME3.
MERS-CoV Clinical Features of MERS Infection CDC
https://www.cdc.gov › coronavirus › clin...

Sep 14, 2017 The median incubation period for secondary cases associated with limited human-to-human transmission is approximately 5 days (range 2-14 days). In MERS-CoV patients, the median time from illness onset to hospitalization is approximately 4 days.


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Old Sep 6, 2018 | 3:39 am
  #27  
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A6-EUF is only 2 years old. Id be shocked if hardware was to blame here.
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Old Sep 6, 2018 | 12:06 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by skywardhunter
What does "boost the air" mean? Do you mean increase the air conditioning (i.e. make it colder? warmer?)

Airplanes don't have to pull over to fill up on air, nor is air charged at $1/litre or whatever, I assume you refer to fuel saving, which would be extraordinarily insignificant.
I'm no expert, but believe that most modern aircraft do allow the pilots some control over the recirculation fans. These do not control cabin pressure or temperature but how much fresh air is used from the packs. This essentially robs the engines of some of the air used to generate thrust, and therefore increases fuel consumption. It can make a significant difference, somewhere between 1-3% if I remember correctly.

Maybe a pilot or engineer can chime in if I'm way off base, but in any case I can't imagine that recirculation fan settings is something that pilots would routinely have to adjust. I remember reading somewhere that on some aircraft there is just a NORMAL and a HIGH setting. At the end of the day there is some merit to the idea of fresh vs dirty air onboard aircraft. I think the cockpit receives no re-circulated air at all, and the people at the back near the outflow valve get to breathe in all the 'dirty' air. Besides, there are other possible sources of air contamination onboard aircraft besides fellow passengers...for those who may not be aware, google 'aircraft toxic fume events' or similar.
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Old Sep 6, 2018 | 12:16 pm
  #29  
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It's so funny when people piece together some random ideas and play engineer/scientist. FWIW, the people who got sick on the EK flight to NY are believed to have contracted flu in Saudi Arabia.
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Old Sep 6, 2018 | 3:07 pm
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Originally Posted by boboqui
MERS-CoV Clinical Features of MERS Infection CDC
https://www.cdc.gov coronavirus clin...

Sep 14, 2017 The median incubation period for secondary cases associated with limited human-to-human transmission is approximately 5 days (range 2-14 days). In MERS-CoV patients, the median time from illness onset to hospitalization is approximately 4 days.
You didn't understand Sydtogla 's sarcastic comment which implied that, if MERS was to be blamed, the US administration would gladly use this excuse to freeze all ME3 operations to the US.
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