European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is facing yet another lawsuit from a flight attendant who claims to now suffer from a debilitating chronic illness after she breathed in ‘toxic’ fumes while working on one of the company’s popular A320-series single-aisle jets.
Airbus has been accused of knowing about a defect with the air conditioning system on these planes for years, but it allegedly put profit over safety and refused to take action to minimize the risk of injury to passengers and crew.
American Airlines flight attendant sues Airbus over ‘toxic’ cabin air incident
The latest lawsuit against Airbus was filed in a New York district court this week by Tamar Ferrel, an American Airlines flight attendant based in Phoenix, who claims to have suffered permanent neurological and psychological injuries after an alarming incident on January 14, 2024.
The incident occurred as passengers were boarding an A319 airliner at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Tamar was standing in the aisle, roughly halfway down the plane, helping passengers board, when the Captain switched on the ‘auxiliary power unit’ (APU).
What is an auxiliary power unit? The APU is a small additional engine that is located in the tail of an aircraft. It provides the plane with power while it is on the ground and is used to start the main engines.
Within seconds of the APU being turned on, the smell of dirty socks permeated the cabin. Tamar quickly moved to the back of the aircraft, where she found her coworker coughing and gagging from the smell.
Tamar called the Captain, who ordered an evacuation of the plane. During this time, Tamar began to cough and suffer from a mental fog and a severe headache.
Although the passengers had been evacuated from the aircraft, Tamar was required to remain on board for another hour before she and the rest of the crew were taken to an urgent care facility for a check-up.
Despite her symptoms, Tamar was cleared to return to work, and after taking just one day off, she was assigned a flight to Mexico. During the flight, Tamar says she felt so sick that she began shaking and had to be put on oxygen.
Tamar’s symptoms progressively got worse, and despite having no other income source, she had to take more and more time off work due to how sick she was feeling.
Civil complaint against Airbus.
“She eventually saw a well-known neurologist, Dr. Robert Kaniecki, an expert in headaches, who continues to treat her but who equated her exposure on January 14, 2024 to a football player being hit in the head, but with chemicals.”
To this day, Tamar has not been able to return to work as a flight attendant. She still suffers from headaches daily, and whenever she attempts to return to her job, she suffers from panic attacks, symptomatic of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Airbus facing multiple lawsuits over ‘bleed air’ contamination
This is far from the only lawsuit that Airbus is facing over an alleged design defect with the so-called ‘bleed air’ system it uses supply air into the passenger cabin.
The bleed air system draws in pre-heated compressed air from the engine and pumps it straight into the cabin after being cooled through an air conditioning system.
Because the air is fed through the engine, campaigners believe that it is susceptible to being contaminated with engine oils and lubricants that vaporize on a hot engine.
This is believed to be a particular risk with the APU on the Airbus A319 because the air inlet to the APU is on the rear belly of the aircraft and close to two major sources of potential oil leakage.
Last May, Darlene Fricchione, a United Airlines flight attendant, filed a lawsuit against Airbus over a remarkably similar incident to Tamar’s, which occurred on an A319 that had just landed at Denver International Airport on April 11, 2023.
After parking at the gate, the Captain turned on the APU, and the cabin filled with a chemical-like smell that made Darlene gag for air. Her symptoms were so bad that a pulmonologist said it looked like “someone had opened up a bag of chlorine and poured it down her throat because her throat cavity looked sunburned.”
Only last month, rival aircraft manufacturer Boeing was also hit with the first-ever passenger-led lawsuit over contaminated cabin air following an incident aboard a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737.
Jonathan Harris, a law professor at Temple University, says exposure to contaminated cabin air has left him with chronic brain and respiratory injuries, and he still suffers from symptoms more than a year after the incident.
How dangerous is a fume event?
Just how much of an effect contaminated cabin air can have on someones longterm health is still very open to debate, and the airline industry insists that while these incidents can be unpleasant, passengers and crew should recover quickly.
That is certainly true for the vast majority of people who are caught up in a contaminated air event, but campaigners argue that a small number of victims do suffer chronic symptoms long after their exposure.
Only one commercial airliner doesn’t use bleed air
Nearly every commercial airliner uses the bleed air system to supply air to the passenger cabin, although lawyers acting on behalf of ‘toxic air’ victims argue that the industry must do more to reduce the risk of bleed air being contaminated with engine oil and other chemicals.
Campaigners claim Airbus and Boeing have failed to invest in filters, converters, sensors, or alarms that could reduce the risk of a contaminated air event or provide an early warning.
To this day, there is only one commonly flown commercial passenger jet that does not use the bleed air system… that’s the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Bottom line
Airbus is facing another lawsuit from a flight attendant who alleges that she has been unable to return to her flying career ever since she breathed in contaminated cabin air aboard an Airbus A319.
Tamar accuses Airbus of not remedying a design defect with the A320-series of aircraft that makes compensatory damages and punitive damages, accusing Airbus of acting with “reckless indifference” to crew and passenger safety. them more susceptible to contaminated air events.
