FriendlySkyFlyer999

Anyone on these two flights:
LH452 from Munich to Los Angeles on 15 December, 2008
LH464 from Frankfurt to Orlando on 18 December, 2008

There is a report

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/04/16/325242/lufthansa-a340-600s-suffer-cabin-air-contamination.html

on cabin air contamination


Wondering anybody can share the experience on these two flights. I had once with the same smell on a LH flight. But went away after few minutes.

demue

There are supposeldy more instances of this that have not leaked out. Someone who is usually quite accurate on these kinds of things told me that more LH crew on A346's complained about getting dizy or some even coming close to passing out from 'fumes' in the cabin. Also several pax have complained. I heard (unconfirmed) that Airbus is now also involved in a LH internal fact finding, but so far no actions or results. I was on one of those birds SIN-MUC in 26H and never smelled anything. Actually I found this to be the best way to travel LH Y longhual. I hope they fix it soon.

berlingooner

"Someone who is usually quite accurate on these kinds of things told me that more LH crew on A346's complained about getting dizy or some even coming close to passing out from 'fumes' in the cabin...I was on one of those birds SIN-MUC in 26H and never smelled anything. Actually I found this to be the best way to travel LH Y longhual. I hope they fix it soon."

I take it from this that the mysterious fumes had the desired effect and you passed out in Y only to be resuscitated on arrival. It is an interesting concept - I might volunteer for the gas next time I have to fly long-haul Y.

HONkey

Last year I was flying A340-600s a few times, and I can confirm - together with few others colleagues we felt "dizzy" during the flight and had a serious headache (not because drinking too much ). Now I know what was the reason - we guessed it was something with the air in the cabin, but we did not smell anything suspicious. After leaving the plane we suddenly were "healed", so it must have been the air in the cabin.

oliver2002

The 346 in question is quarantined in the FRA hangar for investigation. It seems they can't recreate the situation on the ground.

SleepOverGreenland

I've written many times, that I felt the A346 has a very dry air, compared to B744 or A330. Another point is, even confirmed by FAs, that the temperature control is extremely difficult in this aircraft type. It is either too cold or much too warm. Most often it is too warm, IMHO. Too dry and too warm air make headaches much more likely. So I believe this is the root cause, rather than the described air behaviour. Since the described air problem is considered a rare problem still, it can't be on 100% of the flights. But the dry out and "headache" problem happened on 100% of my flights on that aircraft.

Still booked a leg in a couple weeks on that bird, as that was the more schedule convenient connection compared to the 744 flight.

Rambuster

There was a report about this on German TV two weeks ago or so.

weero

The same claim is brought forward by several websites which all are maintained by a handful of people who base their claims on very few anecdotal stories:

http://www.toxicairlines.com/

http://www.welcomeaboardtoxicairlines.com/

http://www.toxicfreeairlines.com/

http://www.aopis.org/

http://www.susanmichaelis.com/

and a few newsreports:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...dustry.uknews1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7315842.stm

The few official comments are more than skeptical about it:
http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk...tox0621add.pdf

http://www.profeng.com/archive/archi...6/22060004.htm

Triple3

weero understands this.

YVR Cockroach

Maybe one of the compressor seals (for bleed air) in one of the engines has a leak and oil (or some other contaminant) is getting into it.

demue

Mhm is that supposed to be a joke or are you struggling reading & understanding my post? I mentioned that some crew reported coming close to passing out and also said that I never smelled anything on my multiple flights on board of the A346 but then I was never on the ones that are grounded now. I was quite surprised when I heard the story from a friend who actually works for LH Technik.

Well nonetheless a hearty welcome to FT to you. Maybe one needs to grow accustomed to your humor first as I'm not quite getting it but then it's not important anyway.

weero

Unless the perceptive reduction has been induced by a neurotoxic aerosol blown into the cabin.

Then your comment would be even on topic .

weero

The contributions of the ram air and bleed air to the neurotoxins in modern jetliners has been the subject of a detailed scientific investigation, outlined here.

They found ubiquitous traces of tricresyl phosphate in the compressor air but not enough to harden the suspicion of negative health impact from the amounts monitored.

The EU authorities saw no grounds to introduce further recommendations or additional filters beyond the next generation aircraft having air quality monitoring anyway.

The article does not deal with further additives washed into the air circulation by the AC packs.

demue

Aiyoh lah now it is getting scientific

openflync

Downstairs toilets perhaps