Death in the air

The date was 12 November 1999, the flight was an internal flight in Sweden. The aircraft was a British Aerospace (BAe) 146.

A report into the routine flight, and just pre-released from the Swedish air accident investigation department, makes worrying reading for anyone who lives underneath the flightpath of a major airport.

In Thamesmead's case, that airport is London City Airport, which is on target for a record year with passenger numbers up 9% so far.

The first concern for the crew was when an unidentified toxic gas appeared inside the cabins of a BAe146 aircraft operated by Braathens Malmo Aviation.

On the first leg of the three-leg flight, the cabin attendants felt strange and experienced incredible pressure.

One attendant described the experience as like a "moonwalk."

On the second leg, the discomfort returned, and the two pilots experienced it too.

On the third leg, to Sturrup airport, the cabin manager realised that something was seriously wrong, went forward to the cockpit before landing and found that both pilots were wearing their oxygen masks.

The captain was so near to blackout as to be on the verge of crashing the plane.

In his words he was "feeling dizzy and groggy", despite the oxygen mask he was wearing.

He told the first officer to take over the controls and land the plane - but he was feeling no better and between them they managed to prevent a disaster - a disaster waiting to happen.

The Swedish board of accident investigation, the airline and the aircraft engine manufacturers all treated the incident as very serious, as well they might.

The initial investigation pointed to a leak of a potentially toxic engine lubricant. The real scare is that those lubricants were made from organophosphates.

Organophosphates (or OPs) are suspected of being the biggest killers in farming today. They are also accused of being responsible for malformed births, cot deaths and other fatal effects on adults.

Farmers have complained for years that sheep dips using OPs have caused major illnesses, so much so that the Government has issued warnings to their use.

With farmers, there are rafts of diseases connected with OPs.

The bottom line is that after an exposure, farmers claim that, when they spray, they get a severe headaches, and they always do.

A recent survey of 130 farmers showed that all said they were affected.

And it gets worse, in the same survey 60% of them had asthma and 60% were suffering from depression.

At the BSE inquiry, it was claimed by witnesses that many gardners developed early onset Parkinsons Disease through the use of OPs, while some doctors are now questioning whether OPs have caused heart attacks and other neurological diseases.

One infamous OP is called Sarin - the toxic gas that almost wiped out thousands on the Tokyo underground.

Yet every day, above our heads, aircraft are using OPs as their main lubricant.

And the worry does not end there, for these killers-in-waiting have been approved by the Department of Transport "only for helicopter engines, which operate at relatively low altitudes" in other words - police helicopters that fly over our heads and circle.

Despite Ministers knowing of the possible dangers of OPs, there had been no warning issued to either aircrews or passengers.

Yet in evidence to the House of Lords, the British Air Line Pilots Association wrote:

"Our concerns have been raised with both the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] and the DETR [Department of Environment, Transport and Regions], however, their response was that any such contamination could be controlled by either isolating the air conditioning unit or shutting down the affected engine.

This action, however, can only be taken after exposure has occurred and this would be experienced by not just one or two individuals, but possibly all of the passengers and crew.

The lubricant leaks into the cabin, but it also leaks into the air.

This means that Thamesmead could be crop dusted by organophosphates as much as 200 times a day!

Due to the flight safety issues raised by the symptoms of exposure such as disorientation, blurred vision, impaired memory and altered coordination, attempts have been made to address these problems worldwide.

These include changes in design, maintenance and operation procedures.

However, while the problem persists, there is a daily exposure to staff and the public of levels of toxins that may affect safety and raise serious health issues.

Image, if you will a plane coming into land at London City Airport with a crew unconscious because of a leak of a toxic gas, where will that plane crash? Thamesmead - that's where!

Despite the flight safety issues and health risks associated with the use of toxic compounds and reported incidents of cabin air contamination, neither the Industry nor Government has fully investigated this issue.

When we asked the CAA about the Swedish incident, they replied in a letter:

We have no record of any recent incidents relating to the use of organophosphate lubricants.

The organophosphate compound tricresylphosphate is present in almost all military aero-engine lubricants and, as no viable alternative products are available, appropriate measures are taken to avoid the exposure of air and ground crew to any potential health hazards.

We understand that BAe systems is investigating the incident involving a civil BAe 146 aircraft on 12 November and we will consider any recommendations that emerge.

In the House of Commons on June 28, Lib-Dem MP Paul Tyler raised growing concerns about the use of OPs on aircraft and told the House:

I have received an interesting letter from BAe Systems. It does not deny any of the information that I have related, but in a revealing phrase, it claims that the implication in a recent report that the issue is specific to the BAe 146 is inaccurate.

In other words, other craft may be involved.

Two wrongs, let alone 2,000 wrongs, do not make a right. There was no attempt to suggest that the media or those directly involved as air crews had encouraged the concern.

BAe Systems accepted that a problem exists.

Official research reports dating back to the 1950s identify OPs as potentially extremely dangerous toxic chemicals.

In concentrated form, they have been proved to have acute effects on human health.

Low-level dosage over long periods is still being investigated ... There is widespread evidence of chronic effects in at least a substantial proportion of those exposed to OP vapour.

The DETR confirmed recently that the failure of oil seals occurs in one in every 22,000 flights, resulting in organophosphate exposure not only on the plane, but in the surrounding atmosphere as well.

In Australia a senate committee is investigating the neurotoxic effect of BAe 146 and lawsuits are pending in the US and Canada on leakage of organophosphates into aircraft cabins.

But what is being done here?

Well true to form, the Labour Government is allowing the commercial operators or manufacturers of aircraft or engines to do their own research.

Like the police investigating themselves, this is hardly going to produce a fair report.

In this country, there is still no sign of any external, objective and authoritative analysis of the effects of OPs on aircraft and the surrounding area.

Every day, BAe146 planes fly in and out of London City Airport - every day at least one of those aircraft is springing a leak of OPs which are then ejected directly into the atmosphere over Thamesmead.

Every day that is allowed to happen, a crime is being commited in the name of our poor health.

The Docklands airport welcomed its one millionth passenger this year on August 28.

Best-month figures were achieved in March, June and July, when the figure exceeded 140,000 for the first time.