Both pilots and all four cabin crew on this brand-new Germanwings Airbus A319 began feeling "sleepy and unwell" after only a few minutes of flight, according to the report from the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit. Donning oxygen masks provided almost instant relief from the symptoms.
The purser, the first to act on her awareness of what she saw and felt by calling the pilots on the interphone, may have saved the day by doing so. An "unusual number "of passengers were falling asleep and her attempt to attract the attention of a nearby cabin crew member failed. He was "unresponsive".
Her message jolted the pilots into the realisation that they, too, were feeling unwell. They declared a full emergency and returned to Dublin, landing just 24min after take-off.
An extremely thorough investigation into what happened checked out the aircraft and engines and found no evidence of any contamination.
What they didn't do - and that's a real pity - is to check out the passengers, except by interviewing them. Blood tests, even a few days later, may have provided the missing evidence of what happened.
The AAIU's principle recommendation was that Ireland's major airports should, as required by ICAO, have medical staff on hand. Dublin did not.
But it requires more than an available doctor. It requires crew and passengers who know they have been affected by some form of cabin air contamination to insist on having medical tests.
Well done the Purser. If the crew just quietly gone to sleep we could have seen a repeat of the Helios accident. That was caused by crew and passenger hypoxia following failure of the cabin to pressurise - not the case here. But the risk of subtly losing consciousness, however it happens, needs to be taken seriously.
on July 20, 2010 3:00 PM | Reply
A sobering wake-up call indeed. A closer parallel in AAIU terms was the Dec 7 2000 Aer Lingus B-737-500 morning flight from Cork to Amsterdam. I personally witnessed this event from the airport and the mentioned duty engineer, Brian, is a close friend from Galway. This flight was initially conducted with a crossbleed start due to APU incapacity of starting #2. With Brian’s concurrence and observation on interphone, they conducted a crossbleed start of # 2 after an air-cart start of #1. Thhe Transcript is below and the duty captain on that day is an EI A-330 FO today.
Considering the de-facto air contamination of the Germanwings A-319 and the recent Australian BAE-146 court case, we are hopefully more aware of cabin air contamination and not lethargically confusing it with hypoxia. Like the Roman Catholic Church’s internal and external contamination, it was always there. But in an IT inter-webbed world we are all aware and no longer too lethargic to be apathetic, a breath of fresh air and bright light is the demonstrable remedy, PDQ, QED !
EICK Dec 7 2000. EI B-735. Note 1. FDR readout on 1013 hPa, QNH 994 hPa
Event Time Alt
1013
(Note 1) L/R
Pack
H/L L/R
Pack
On/Off Isol
Valve Elapsed
Time Remarks
Airborne 0721 00. High Off Open
Auto Fail on High Off Open After T/O
Cabin Alt Warning 072441 10,000
Approx High Off Open 0 min 0 Avg ROC
2900 ft/min
1st Max Level 0725 11,104 High Off Open 0 min 19
Back to FL 100 0726 10,000 High Off Open 1 min 19 Level 2 min
Re-commenced climb 0728 10,000 High Off Open 3 min 19 R.O.C
841 ft/min
2nd Max Level 0733 14,208 High Off Open 8 min 19
Levelled 073310 14,144 High Off Open 8 min 29 1 min 20
Start Descent 073430 14,144 High Off Open 9 min 49
Through FL 100 0737 10,000 High Off Open 12min 19
Through FL 095 073730 9,504 Low On Closed Packs on
Land on 0755 Ground
W.O.W Low On Closed Flight time 34 min