MSNBC has run an incredibly thorough article about a Boeing flight attendant suing the company for neglectful practices relating to toxic fumes in the cabins of their airplanes. The settlement, won by Terry Williams, suggests memory loss and and tremors among other afflictions resulting from unclean air pumped in to a plane on which she was working.
A former flight attendant is believed to be the first person in the U.S. to settle a lawsuit against the Boeing Co. over what she claims is faulty aircraft design that allowed toxic fumes to reach the cabin, triggering tremors, memory loss and severe headaches.
The amount and other details of the settlement Wednesday between former American Airlines worker Terry Williams, a 42-year-old mother of two, and Boeing were not made public as a condition of the agreement.
But 250,000 pages of company documents turned over to the plaintiff's legal team by Boeing seem certain to fuel the long-running battle over the safety of cabin air in commercial jetliners.
"The issue is really heating up now," Judith Murawski, a Seattle-area based industrial hygienist for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told msnbc.com, adding that she typically handles at least three new cases a week involving crew members exposed to fumes. Many calls come from crew members on their way to emergency rooms or urgent care clinics, she said.
On at least one U.S.-registered commercial jetliner a day — out of approximately 28,000 flights — pilots, flight attendants and passengers are exposed to toxic smoke or fumes entering the plane's air conditioning system, say industry officials. And the documented incidents of contaminated air, which can contain tricresyl phosphates (TCPs), carbon monoxide and other toxic components, may not cover all the exposures.
Williams is not alone in applying pressure on this issue. Several pilots have lost their medical clearances because of fume-related injuries, another suit suggests:
Other airlines have drawn criticism for their response to crew members' complaints.
Sixteen US Airways pilots and flight attendants in April sued a US Airways contractor, ST Aerospace Mobile, over what they said was improper maintenance at its Mobile, Ala., servicing center that resulted in six fume events aboard the same Boeing 767 from Dec. 28, 2009, to April 25, 2010. Among the plaintiffs' symptoms were headaches, sore throats, eye irritations, dizziness and nausea. Some also complained of fatigue and cognitive difficulties.
At least two plaintiffs were pilots who lost their medical clearances, attorney Robert Spohrer of Jacksonville, Fla., told the Mobile Press-Register newspaper.
In August, the union representing 6,900 US Airways flight attendants sent a letter to FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt seeking an investigation of 87 purported air supply contamination events in 2009 and 2010, 41 of which were confirmed with mechanical records as oil-contamination events.
The entire article is a must-read, though it won't boost already low traveler confidence in the aviation industry. Boeing, meanwhile, continues to stake its claim as the face of the anti-worker voodoo doll.