Millions of people get on and off planes every day without ever noticing a thing.
But while flying, have you ever gotten a whiff of a nasty smell, which might have burned the eyes, made the throat sore, left you dizzy, with a headache or even disoriented? You’re about to hear exactly what that might have been. And it’s not good. It may be toxic. It’s what one lawsuit calls a dirty little secret of the commercial airline industry. It’s hidden in what we call the Boeing Papers. A WGN investigation uncovered emails, documents and research that every flying passenger should see.
While hundred ton planes crisscross the sky today, go back to a time when it wasn’t always so.
Back in the day, Boeing proudly promoted the maiden flight of its new 747 Super Jet. But well before that marvel took off, documents show Boeing knew a design feature was already an engineering headache.
It’s called the “bleed air system.” Outside air is sucked through the engine and in effect bled off, diverted to the cabin and recirculated with air passengers are already breathing.
It could be a flaw in the system.
A 1953 report from Boeing on the air contamination problem, along with a handful of other industry reports, show the harmful potential when heated toxic jet engine oil can seep into cabin air.
When it goes wrong and oil leaks, airplane cabin air smells sort of like a dirty, wet sock, burnt oil or glue. Maybe you’ve smelled or seen the smoke in the cabin.
Here’s what important: It is still happening six decades later.
Sean Gamble is one of a group of attorneys suing Boeing. Two cases were filed in two years in Chicago. One of them was filed a couple of weeks ago.
“Boeing knows, but will do nothing about this problem,” Gamble says. “There have been warnings, a number of warnings, not just by industry insiders and engineers, but by medical doctors, others working outside the industry, trying to sound the alarm. And up to this point, Boeing isn’t listening.”
READ THE FULL LAWSUIT DOCUMENT HERE (pdf)
One case goes back to the summer of 2013. An Alaska Airlines flight took off from Boston for San Diego. The plane had to be diverted to Chicago after all four flight attendants became violently ill. Two passed out. When they recovered, each suffered headaches, blurred vision and memory loss. For one flight attendant, the problems are still so severe she lives permanently with her mother.
Two years later, another flight attendant, Vashti Escobedo, got sick.
“Since the flight I have struggled with migraines that are daily,” Escobedo says. “The level of pain varies, but they are every day. Dizzy, occasionally nausea. I still have blurry vision. And, I struggle with memory problems, really bad difficulty concentrating.”
Her story started at the SeaTac Airport in Washington state on a round-trip flight on Alaska Air between Seattle and Austin flying on new Boeing plane --just weeks old.
It was to be a smooth easy flight until 45 minutes in when Vashti and the other flight attendants suddenly became sick.
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WGN Investigates wanted to sit down with Boeing to talk about the history of the problem of “bleed air,” but no one would agree to an on-camera interview.
Instead, the company issued a statement saying:
This lawsuit resurrects a series of old and discredited claims about the quality of Boeing’s cabin air, and our position on this issue has not changed.
The air in our airplane cabins is safe. Boeing’s bleed air systems meet all applicable FAA requirements, and an overwhelming body of scientific evidence – including independent research conducted by universities and government agencies – confirms the safety of Boeing’s bleed air systems and the air on board our airplanes.
