Pilots, crew breathing fumes suffer brain, nerve damage: report

Scores of pilots and flight attendants have suffered brain and nerve damage akin to battered NFL players after breathing toxic fumes leaking into airplane cockpits and cabins, according to an investigation.

Since 2010, airlines have filed thousands of reports with the Federal Aviation Administration warning toxic fumes are seeping into cockpits and cabins. The leaks come from a system that draws in engine air and pushes it through the plane unfiltered, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The number of cases has surged in recent years, with Airbus’s widely used A320 jets at the center of the spike, records obtained by the Journal show.

One Delta jet bound for South Carolina was forced back to Atlanta after thick white smoke poured through overhead vents in the cabin, sending crew members and passengers scrambling for air.

“Breathe through your clothing, stay low,” a Delta flight attendant told passengers over the loudspeaker at the time as the pilots declared an emergency.

JetBlue flight attendant Florence Chesson said she was left with a traumatic brain injury and permanent nerve damage after breathing contaminated air on a flight to Puerto Rico.

She recalled feeling drugged in midair, then watched a fellow crew member collapse and vomit before both were rushed to a hospital after landing.

“I felt like I was talking gibberish,” Chesson told the Journal, recalling how she kept repeating, “What just happened to me? What just happened to me?”

The next morning, she woke up feeling like her brain was on fire, she said.

“I felt like someone poured gasoline and lit a match,” Chesson said.

Her neurologist, Dr. Robert Kaniecki, compared the damage to a chemical concussion “extraordinarily similar” to those suffered by NFL linebackers after brutal hits.

Kaniecki said he has treated more than 100 flight attendants and about a dozen pilots for brain injuries tied to toxic cabin air over the past two decades. He described repeated exposures as “micro concussions” that primed crews for a major event — “the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

Dr. Robert Harrison, an occupational medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told the Journal he has treated more than 100 aircrew for injuries linked to fumes.

“This is real, this can’t be just all in their heads,” he said.

A Delta rep told The Post on Sunday that the airline’s “safety management system and safety culture help us address root causes of potential issues to reinforce that air transportation remains the safest form of travel in the world.”

A Delta source added, “Smoke, fumes and odor events are exceedingly rare though we take each seriously, as we do with all matters of safety. Delta and Delta Connection operate approximately 5,000 daily flights.

“Delta teams have taken action to replace auxiliary power units on our A320 family fleet of aircraft. This is work that continues and is more than 80 percent complete.”

Airbus and Boeing have admitted that oil and hydraulic fluid can leak from engines and vaporize at extreme heat, releasing toxic compounds into the air supply.

In an internal 2017 email revealed in a lawsuit, Boeing quality inspector Steven Reiman warned oil leaks could make “aircrew sick to the point of death.”

Publicly, Boeing insists, “the cabin air inside Boeing airplanes is safe,” while Airbus said its aircraft meet “all relevant and applicable airworthiness requirements.”

The FAA says such tainted-air incidents are “rare.”

But records reviewed by the Journal showed the rate of fume events has climbed to nearly 108 per million departures.

An FAA safety inspector warned in 2018 that modern jet oils contained organophosphates once used “as a nerve agent for warfare” and were entering cabins unfiltered.

FAA investigators last year admitted in an internal report that bleed air contaminants are toxic, after reviewing two Southwest Airlines flights that hit large birds in 2023.

The collisions revealed a design flaw in the aircraft’s engines that dumped liters of oil into the bleed air system, potentially exposing pilots to deadly chemical levels “at just 39 seconds.”

“Southwest Airlines is in close contact with the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, as well as the engine manufacturer,” a Southwest spokesperson told The Post.

“Southwest notified its Flight Crews about the effects of certain bird strikes following two events that occurred in 2023. As part of that effort, Southwest reiterated the importance of following established Safety procedures that are part of the company’s recurrent Pilot training.”

The airline said that it “continues to address this issue through its robust Safety Management System while working with the manufacturers and Safety regulators to identify a permanent solution.”

At JetBlue and Spirit, which operate mostly Airbus jets, the frequency of A320 fume incidents spiked 660% between 2016 and 2024.

Under pressure from airlines, Airbus loosened its maintenance rules in 2016, allowing aircraft that emitted “sweaty sock” odors to keep flying without immediate inspection.

JetBlue pilot Andrew Myers reportedly collapsed after inhaling fumes during a maintenance test and was later diagnosed with a “chemical-induced nervous system injury.”

He lost his FAA medical license in what became the first US case where a court recognized long-term health damage from a fume event.

“There are pilots that we’re both aware of that should not be flying,” his wife Wendy told the Journal.

“We take nothing more seriously than the safety and health of our crewmembers and customers,” a JetBlue spokesperson told The Post.

“While air quality concerns are not unique to JetBlue, we continue working to minimize these events and to strengthen the policies and procedures that help reduce and manage them.”

The spokesperson added that JetBlue “is committed to developing best practices and guidance regarding procedures, training, and reporting of these events when they occur.”

“Different odors can arise for a variety of reasons and are a normal part of operating and maintaining aircraft,” the JetBlue spokesperson added.

“We would never operate an aircraft if we believed it posed a health or safety risk to our customers or crewmembers. We will continue taking steps to minimize air quality issues and to support crewmembers when they do occur.”

Florentina Tudor, a senior cabin crew member at Wizz Air, reported about 10 fume events in the year before she was suspended and later fired.

She said a captain dismissed a sick colleague as “just pretending” before medics carried the attendant away.

“At some point I asked myself, is it just me, am I paranoid?” Tudor said.

In 2017, then–NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt was told of a fume event but said it fell outside the agency’s jurisdiction.

A recent FAA-funded study found chemicals such as formaldehyde and tridecane exceeded workplace safety limits when vaporized at engine heat levels.

“It’s clear to me that there’s concerning data in these studies, and it’s inappropriately downplayed,” Joseph Allen, a Harvard air-quality specialist, told the Journal.

Airbus told customers last year that its “Project Fresh” redesign could cut cabin odor events by 85% with a relocated vent, but the fix will apply only to new jets starting in 2026.

“The FAA is committed to protecting the safety and health of passengers and cabin crews on our nation’s airlines,” an agency spokesperson told The Post in a statement.

“The agency has strict cabin air standards, and studies have shown cabin air is as good as or better than the air found in offices and homes.”

The FAA said that “in rare instances, mechanical issues such as failures of an engine oil seal or recirculation fan bearings can cause fumes to enter the cabin.”

“Airlines are required to report these incidents to the FAA. The FAA investigates the causes and makes sure they’re fixed before the aircraft returns to service.”

A spokesperson for Boeing provided a statement to The Post which read: “Safety is our top priority.”

“To this end, Boeing has a long history of participation in, and support of, industry efforts to assess air quality, evaluate air purification and air quality sensor technologies, and develop air quality standards, and other industry initiatives,” the airplane manufacturer said.

“The cabin air inside Boeing airplanes is safe. There is no indoor environment that is free from ‘contaminants.’ Independent researchers, universities, industry groups, and government agencies have conducted extensive research on cabin air quality.”

The spokesperson added that the “results repeatedly demonstrate that contaminant levels on aircraft are generally low and that health and safety standards are met.”