Mystery illness spread through plane mid-flight

I'm curious
why they didn't divert to Iceland
instead of heading all the way back to England...

Zaphod58

a reply to: crazyewok

I also thought you need at least 6 hrs for Bacillus cereus, but have now found it depends which type of effects it causes. Viz eg this article on the University of Nebraska UNL-Food site:

Bacillus cereus can cause two distinct types of illnesses: 1) a diarrheal illness with an incubation time of approximately 10 to 16 hours, and 2) an emetic (vomiting) illness with an incubation time of one to six hours.

Symptoms include:

Abdominal cramps
Watery diarrhea
Nausea
Vomiting

Onset time:

Type 1: 10-16 hours
Type 2: 1-6 hours

So, it's not impossible to have effects from Bacillus cereus within a very short time frame. Even just an hour.

Scary stuff, that.

However, as the crew apparently became ill first, the above would probably only apply as a possible source if they had the same food as the passengers, but ate earlier. And also, the reports talk of "equilibrium problems", which I don't take as an obvious euphemism for vomiting per se.

The only positive I take from this story at present is that it doesn't appear both pilots were disabled by whatever-it-was -- at least, not to an extent that rendered them incapable of flying the plane.

a reply to: Zaphod58

These are things the PTB wouldn't want the general population to know. I rather doubt they'll report this in the MSM, it would too much scare the flying public.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: Zaphod58

These are things the PTB wouldn't want the general population to know. I rather doubt they'll report this in the MSM, it would too much scare the flying public.

I'll bet you are wrong.

www.foxnews.com...

One of the crew reported an "electrical" or burning smell just before. Again, consistent with a bleed air leak. American maintenance crews replaced all the air filters on the aircraft as a precaution.

Looks like the NYT is reporting on the bleed air leak - just as Zaphod predicted...

Although it remained unclear what had caused people on board to become ill, dizziness and loss of consciousness are among a range of symptoms that have been associated in the past with jet engine fumes leaking into the cabin.

SOURCE

originally posted by: Volchitsa
a reply to: Zaphod58

...Maybe it could've been mass hysteria. You know, like how some people throw up when they see someone else throwing up and all that.

There's a different term for that: Barf-O-Rama

a reply to: Zaphod58

Why do these things always happen to American airlines? I will never fly that airline ever again. Their company needs to be dismantled. I know for a fact that they are unable to do basic scheduling operations due to their unreliable computer systems. How much worse is their maintenance record?

a reply to: SevenThunders

Old aircraft. Thanks to the merger with US Airways, their fleet age is down to 11.2 years, but they have aircraft anywhere from a year old (787) to almost 24 years old (MD-80/90). The 777 fleet averages 11.5 years.

They actually have a really good maintenance record. They contract a lot of work from other airlines, and perform their heavy checks for them.

a reply to: Zaphod58

My last flight with them was a disaster; late arrivals, missed connecting flights, wrong gate assignments, poor rescheduling, followed by another wrong gate assignment and a 12 hour hell flight. After missing the first connecting flight due to a late arrival, we nearly missed two others because we were told to go to the wrong gate!

Meanwhile I followed with keen interest of mishap after mishap all reported on American airlines flights. Either the company is snakebit, or they really have a logistics problem, probably due to poor management and excessive cost cutting. The merger was a complete disaster from my personal experience.

a reply to: SevenThunders

They have been trying to cut costs as low as they could, without replacing the aircraft they needed to replace.

It just happened again on a different American Airlines flight...

American Airlines forced to ground a plane for the second time after members of the crew and passengers on board suffered from a mystery illness

SOURCE