Injured On An Airplane?

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Republished from: The Charlotte Observer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX

Crew members from three previous flights of the US Airwaysplane that made people sick this week in Charlotte still have not returned to work because of illness related to those flights.

Researchers say passengers on those previous flights might have unknowingly been exposed to toxic fumes, and symptoms might not show up for days or weeks.

Eight pilots and crew members on flights in December and January have not returned to work due to their symptoms, a flight attendant union representative said Wednesday.

“They’re all breathing in the same air,” said Judith Murawski, a safety researcher for the Association of Flight Attendants. “There’s no question that passengers might be affected, and they just have no idea.”

U.S. Airways spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said Wednesday that passengers on at least one of the previous flights — Flight 1041 from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, to Charlotte on Jan. 16 — were notified of possible exposure.

The plane involved in all four incidents, a Boeing 767, caused nine people to be taken to Carolinas Medical Center on Tuesday morning after they complained of symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic fumes. Two pilots, five flight attendants and two passengers were taken from Flight 985, which was scheduled to leave for Jamaica but returned to the gate after an electrical smell was reported in the cabin.

US Airways mechanics determined Wednesday that two bad seals on a rear door of the plane — tail No. 0251 — caused the problem, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration’s southern office in Atlanta.

“The bad seals, combined with a strong tailwind, allowed engine exhaust into the plane,” said Bergen.

Mohr said the seals probably would have performed properly when the cabin became pressurized. She said the airline will not clear the plane for flights until it conducts a “deeper review,” given the plane’s recent history of problems.

The incident is the aircraft’s fourth in three months. On Dec. 28 and 30, crew members were sickened from a leak of hydraulic fluid on flights to Puerto Rico, Mohr said. No one was taken to a hospital then.

The plane was cleared for flight in early January, but on Jan. 16, eight passengers and seven crew members complained of headaches and nausea on a flight to Charlotte from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Several were taken to a hospital in Charlotte. The plane was grounded while workers searched for and repaired what the company described in an e-mail to flight attendants as a leak of oil fumes into the cabin air system.

Crew members from each of those three flights remain out of work — including all but one of the seven crew members from the Jan. 16 incident, said Murawski. Crew members, including one based in Charlotte, are complaining of several symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic fumes, said Murawski, who remains in regular contact. Those symptoms, which have not improved for some, include severe headaches, memory loss and respiratory problems.

Crew members also have sent blood samples to Clem Furlong, a University of Washington scientist who is doing research to determine if they were exposed to toxic engine oil fumes. Factors such as diet and medications may explain why some people are more vulnerable to toxin exposure, Furlong said, but passengers would be susceptible to exposure.

If passengers experience similar symptoms, Furlong said, they should let their doctor know they may have been exposed to potentially toxic fumes.

On the Jan. 16 flights, attendants noticed that passengers asked for more icepacks and tissues than usual on the flight from Charlotte to St. Thomas, said Murawski. Those passengers were not notified of the possibility of exposure to toxic fumes, said Mohr. The complaints about headaches and nausea happened on the return flight.

Murawski said problems involving oil fumes in planes are more common across the industry than people think. She researched 18 months of FAA reports this decade and found almost one report per day of incidents involving oil fumes and odors.

“When pilots are exposed to these fumes, there’s a flight safety issue,” she said.

The FAA could not immediately provide statistics Wednesday on how frequently fumes are reported on aircraft.

The issue of fumes prompted union complaints last fall to US Airways — as well as a February letter from the leaders of pilot and flight attendant unions complaining about problems on aircraft No. 0251. The letter, which called for a formal investigation into the incidents, said that crew members had gone through a “great deal of suffering,” and “There is no way of knowing how many passengers who flew on AC251 during that period are also experiencing neurological or respiratory symptoms, but have not yet connected their symptoms to the aircraft.”

A union representative in Charlotte was skeptical Wednesday that the US Airways diagnosis of rear seal problems in Tuesday’s incident would solve the issues.

“I’m not saying they’re lying, or that didn’t happen,” said Mike Flores, an official with the US Airways chapter of the flight attendants union. “But I’m not a believer that this plane is fit to fly.”

Flores said crew members might refuse to fly on the plane.

“This airplane has had four separate incidents, and crew members are still out of work,” he said. “What are we waiting for, a fifth?” Staff Writer Steve Lyttle contributed.

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http://www.charlotteobserver.com.

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Written by Dominic Gates

Republished from Seattle Times, Aerospace

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency airworthiness directive Friday requiring that airlines inspect about 600 Boeing 737s to check a mechanism that controls the flap on the horizontal tails of the jets.

Some of the jets must be inspected within 12 days, and the rest within 30 days. FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said about half the affected airplanes are operating in the U.S.

He said the directive stems from an in-flight incident on March 2, when a Ryanair 737-800 en route from Eindhoven in the Netherlands to Madrid, Spain, with 146 passengers aboard experienced “severe vibration” in flight.

The flight crew diverted the airplane, which landed safely and uneventfully in Brussels, Belgium.

An inspection afterward found “extensive damage” to the left elevator, which is a movable flap on the horizontal tail that controls the pitch of the airplane, up or down.

The FAA airworthiness directive described the damage as “failure of the aft attach lugs on the left elevator tab control mechanism.”

“Severe vibration in this attach point is suspected of allowing rapid wear of the joint and resulted in failure of the attach lugs,” the FAA report said. “This condition, if not corrected, could result in a loss of aircraft control and structural integrity.”

During the required inspection of affected planes, mechanics are instructed to look for damage to the attachment points of the elevator-control mechanism. If they find these lugs damaged, the plane must be grounded until the mechanism is replaced.

The Ryanair jet that experienced the vibration in March was a relatively new airplane.

It was delivered from Boeing’s Renton plant in April 2008 and had completed 4,233 flight cycles. Kenitzer, the FAA spokesman, said the elevator tab on the jet’s horizontal tail was the latest design, one mandated by a previous FAA directive in 2003 that was intended “to prevent severe vibration of the elevator and elevator tab assembly.”

That earlier directive required a retrofit redesign involving 88 hours of work at a cost of more than $5,000 per jet. The FAA said then it was necessary to prevent “severe damage to the horizontal stabilizer followed by possible loss of the elevator tab and consequent loss of controllability of the airplane.”

However, Boeing spokeswoman Sandy Angers said the problem that has now come to light with the elevator tab attachment lugs “is a separate issue.”

Boeing issued a service bulletin earlier Friday recommending that airlines inspect the mounting lugs on all its newer-generation 737s, more than 3,000 of which are flying.

However, the emergency FAA directive mandating the inspections applies only to about 600 of those jets considered more at risk and that must be inspected within a month. Whether a jet must be checked within 12 days or within 30 days depends upon its age, its total accumulated flight cycles and if it is approved to fly extended flights.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/boeingaerospace/2011337545_boeing737s13.html

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Reprinted from: LosAngelesTimes.com

Written by: Robert J. Lopez

A Southwest Airlines flight heading to Burbank was on a brief collision course with a small private aircraft Saturday afternoon and had to execute an evasive maneuver, causing injuries to two flight attendants, according to preliminary information from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Southwest Flight 2534, with 85 people on board, was flying at about 6,000 feet and was 20 miles out of Bob Hope Airport about 12:45 p.m when an alert sounded in the cockpit, warning that the Boeing 737 was on a collision course with other aircraft, according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

The Southwest pilot made an emergency descent and then climbed, causing one of the attendants to break a shoulder, Gregor said. The flight landed at Bob Hope without incident.

Officials from the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.

[Updated at 5:45 p.m.: A Southwest spokeswoman said the flight departed from Las Vegas with 80 passengers and that the two employees were treated for their injuries and released.]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/southwest-near-collission.html

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Reprinted from: The Washington Post

Written by: The Associated Press

GROVELAND, Calif. — A small plane crashed in flames in the backyard of a home in rural northern California Friday night, killing the two people aboard but causing no injuries on the ground, authorities said.

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Reprinted from: Seattle PI

Written by: Brooke Donald and Sughin Thanawala, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. — A small plane crashed Wednesday in a residential neighborhood shrouded in heavy fog, killing all three aboard, igniting fires and scattering debris onto a house where a children’s day care center operated, authorities said. There were no reports of injury on the ground, and fires caused by the crash were soon extinguished.

The Cessna 310 crashed around 7:55 a.m. shortly after takeoff from the Palo Alto Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The crash site is one mile northwest of the airport.

Identities of the victims aboard the aircraft were not immediately known.

Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said the plane either struck a 100-foot electrical tower or clipped its power transmission lines and broke apart, sending debris raining down on the working-class Silicon Valley neighborhood.

A wing fell onto one house, where the children’s day care operated, and the rest of the plane struck the front retaining wall of another house down the street before landing onto two vehicles on the street, Schapelhouman said. Debris also struck two neighboring houses, he said.

The occupants of the homes have been accounted for, although authorities can’t be sure of the fatality count until crews begin clearing the wreckage, Schapelhouman said.

“Either by luck or the skill of the pilot, the plane hit the street and not the homes on either side,” he added. “That saved people in this community.”

Kate McClellan, 57, said she was walking her dog when she saw a plane descend from the foggy sky and strike the tower, causing power lines to swing wildly in the air.

“It burst into flames, and then it kept flying for bit before it hit some houses and exploded,” McClellan said.

Pamela Houston, an employee of the day care in the house struck by the wing, said she was feeding an infant when she heard a loud boom that she initially thought was an earthquake until she “saw a big ball of fire hit the side of the house.”

Houston said she screamed to the others in the house - the owner, the owner’s husband and their three children - and the group safely escaped before the home went up in flames.

“There are not even words to describe what it felt like,” she said. “I am very thankful to God that he allowed us to get out.”

The plane is registered to Air Unique Inc. No one answered the phone number listed for the Santa Clara company Wednesday morning. The plane was headed to the Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Southern California, the FAA said.

Calls to the Palo Alto Airport also were not immediately returned.

The city of Palo Alto, which provides power through a municipal utility agency, said most of the city and surrounding area had lost power due to Wednesday’s plane crash. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Hospital both were operating on backup generators and canceled elective surgeries for the day, according to hospitals spokesman Robert Dicks.

“We have multiple crews on scene investigating,” said Joe Molica, a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric, which owns the transmission lines used by the city. “The crash appears to have affected three transmission lines that serve the city of Palo Alto’s municipal utility.”

Follow link:

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_us_plane_hits_house.html

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Reprinted from: The New York Times

Written by: Claire Cain Miller

SAN FRANCISCO — A small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in East Palo Alto Wednesday, killing three employees of Tesla Motors, the California electric car company, and causing widespread power disruptions, officials said.

The plane, a twin-engine Cessna 310, crashed in foggy weather shortly after takeoff from Palo Alto Airport about 8 a.m., said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. It either struck or clipped three transmission lines, disabling a 100-foot electrical tower, said Joe Molica, a spokesman for PG&E.

The crash set two homes and several vehicles on fire. There were no reported injuries on the ground, said Doris Cohen, crime analyst at the East Palo Alto Police Department.

The plane was bound for Hawthorne Municipal Airport, which is near the Los Angeles International Airport. One of the Tesla employees was piloting the plane, according to a source briefed on the incident who requested anonymity because Tesla had not yet publicly confirmed details of the crash. The headquarters of SpaceX, Mr. Musk’s spaceship company, is in Hawthorne, and Tesla, which is based in Palo Alto, uses space in the SpaceX building.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s high-profile chief executive, said in an e-mail message that the names of the three employees would be withheld until their families could be notified. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them,” Mr. Musk said. “Tesla is a small, tightly knit company, and this is a tragic day for us.”

Mr. Musk, 38, co-founded PayPal and made his fortune when it sold to eBay. He has invested heavily in both the car and spaceship companies.

According to F.A.A. and state records, the plane was registered to a company called Air Unique, which is owned by Douglas Bourn, who is a senior electrical engineer at Tesla. It was not clear whether Mr. Bourn was on board. In his Stanford alumni profile, he listed his interests as flying and motorcycling.

Follow link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/us/18tesla.html?dbk

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Written by: The Associated Press

Published by: The Seattle PI

ELYRIA, Ohio — A small plane crashed Monday as it approached the Cleveland area from Gainesville, Fla., killing at least three of the four people aboard, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The plane was approaching the Lorain County Regional Airport in Elyria shortly after 2 p.m. when it crashed, said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory. It was not immediately clear whether the fourth passenger survived.

Melinda Mengelson of Florahome, Fla., the wife of co-pilot John Mengelson, 47, said authorities told her that her husband was one of the three people who died.

He and pilot Wesley Roemer worked for Kenneth Brown, the president of Kenn Air Corp., Mengelson said. She said Brown’s parents, Donald and Shirley Brown, of Lorain County, Ohio, also were aboard.

Donald Brown is credited with inventing drop ceilings, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported.

Authorities have not publicly identified the crash victims. A message seeking comment was left for Lorain County Coroner Paul Matus.

An FAA database shows that the fixed-wing, multiengine MU-2B-60 turboprop plane is owned by Mitts Corp. of Gainesville and was manufactured by Mitsubishi.

New York-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America Inc. planned to be at the site Tuesday.

The company released a statement to say its “thoughts and prayers are with the families of the pilot and passengers.

“This is the first fatal MU-2 accident in almost 4 years,” the statement said. MU-2 series planes were involved in 21 fatal accidents from 1997 to early December 2008, according to Mitsubishi.

The series was manufactured between 1967 and 1985, and the planes carry seven to 10 people can also be used for cargo.

About 370 operate in the U.S., and Mitsubishi still supports the vehicles.

The cause of the crash hasn’t been determined. Isham Cory said the FAA is investigating and the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the inquiry.

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_us_fatal_plane_crash.html

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Written by: The Associated Press

Published by: HeraldNet

CORVALLIS, Ore. — A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee and a contractor were killed when their small plane crashed in an Oregon forest.

The plane’s wreckage was found Monday morning after it failed to arrive in Corvallis as scheduled on Sunday, said Benton County Sheriff Diana Benton.

Authorities identified the pilot as Vernon Ray Bentley, 52, a Fish and Wildlife Service employee from Blodgett. His passenger was David Sherwood Pitkin, 59, of Bandon, a former employee who was working as a contractor for the agency.

The two were involved in the agency’s annual midwinter count of migratory birds, said David Patte, an agency spokesman. “You couldn’t meet two finer people,” he told the Gazette-Times newspaper.

“They were really dedicated to the work they did. They loved the migratory bird program.”

The plane, a single-engine Cessna registered to the U.S. Department of the Interior, departed from the coastal city of Newport at about 4 p.m. Sunday, Simpson said. The effort to find the missing aircraft began four hours later, with roughly 50 people assisting the sheriff’s office.

A radio signal from the plane’s locator beacon allowed searchers to narrow the crash site to an area near Philomath. Ground searchers located the wreckage at about 8:30 a.m.

“It’s a heavily forested area, not easy to get to,” said Mary King, emergency program manager for Benton County.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will try to determine the cause of the crash.

http://heraldnet.com/article/20100119/NEWS03/701199885

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Written By Jennifer Sullivan

Published by Seattle Times staff reporter

Two Alaska Airlines flight attendants who were injured when a 2007 flight from Seattle to California encountered turbulent air have filed a legal claim against a national weather-forecasting service and against the U.S. government.

Donna Dacko and Inga Isakson were working on the flight to Ontario, Calif., on Dec. 25, 2007, when the aircraft hit “previously unreported severe turbulence” before landing, according to the claim filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Isakson slammed her head against a metal chair arm and on a metal frame beneath a passenger seat, according to the claim. It says she lost consciousness, that a pool of blood surrounded her head and she was seen “frothing at the mouth.”

Dacko hit her head on the ceiling of the aircraft and was thrown for at least six rows of seats, landing on Isakson, the claim said.

The claim is a precursor to a lawsuit.

Both women were hospitalized in California. Dacko has undergone several surgeries and remains injured, the claim said.

Dacko and Isakson, in their claim, say that Weather Service International (WSI) was negligent in forecasting the weather. The women were not made aware of any “hazardous weather” forecast for the flight route, the claim said.

They also named the U.S. government in the claim because, they contend, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Air Traffic Organization should have warned them about the severe weather.

“These injuries were entirely preventable,” said aviation attorney Alisa Brodkowitz, who is representing both women. “No one, neither the crew nor the passengers, should have experienced this horrific event.”

The claim was filed now because of an apparent statute of limitations that expires Dec. 25, Brodkowitz said.

A spokeswoman for WSI, based in Massachusetts, declined to comment on the case Friday. Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, also declined to comment.

Marianne Lindsey, a spokeswoman for Alaska Airlines, said the company was not aware of the legal claim.

Aviation expert John Nance said he has never heard of a case similar to this.

“For a suit like this to be successful they are going to have to show the defendants, the FAA in particular, had evidence of turbulence and had a duty to transmit it to the crew and didn’t do that,” said Nance, who is a lawyer and a former pilot for Alaska Airlines. “That’s a steep mountain to climb.”

WSI provides weather reports for several airlines, national media, electrical utilities and package-delivery companies, according to the company’s Web site.

“WSI delivers forecasts that are precise in time, location and intensity — using proprietary algorithms to detect severe weather as it occurs and operating a proprietary high resolution precision forecast system,” the company’s Web site said.

The two women are seeking to have WSI pay them for medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress and lost wages, the claim said.

the rest here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010545289_turbulance19m.html