Men Who Killed Qantas - Matthew Benns [54]
It is not as though the alarm was not being raised. Technical logs filed by the crew reported the smell of jet oil fumes in the cockpit when the plane flew from Auckland to Melbourne – the day after the flight engineer was sent home sick. On 31 July the flight crew reported that MJ II oil vapour was coming through gasper outlets. For three weeks after the flight engineer fell sick the plane kept flying – Auckland, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Los Angeles. Pumping carcinogens and organophosphates into the cabin air every time the engines started.
Qantas finally swung into action after complaints by aircrew led to WorkCover NSW issuing an improvement notice on the airline relating to two incidents of fumes on aircraft flight decks. News of that prompted Qantas to say: ‘Instances such as these are extremely rare and we take them seriously. In accordance with WorkCover requirements we are reviewing our occupational health and safety procedures and are in the process of discussing these procedures with our people. WorkCover fully supports this approach. There is no evidence to suggest that cabin air quality is an issue in any of our aircraft.’2 When presented with all this information in September 2009, the airline remained dismissive. ‘Odour or fume incidents are generally short in duration and it is not always possible to identify the source. In relation to the QF26 incident referred to, extensive checks were carried out but the source could not be identified. At the time, the aircraft was climbing at 8,000 feet in the vicinity of bushfires in California, and one theory was that it flew through a smoke plume. Oil usage in the aircraft’s APU in the prior months was always within manufacturer limits. At the time of the incident, the APU had been shut down for around 20 minutes and therefore could not have caused the event.’3
But it was not an isolated incident. The fumes on the Qantas Boeing 767 with the registration VH-ZXA were also reported to WorkCover. Other technical logs show that a Qantas classic Boeing 747 with the registration VH-EBV also had fumes in the cockpit in February 2008.
Globally, flight crew are so concerned about toxic fumes that they have united, behind their employers’ backs, to take swabs from the walls inside commercial airliners on three continents, including Australia. In 85 per cent of cases they found positive traces of the chemicals generated by superheated jet oil. The Australian and International Pilots’ Association, which represents Qantas pilots, does not want to create a panic, but Association General Manager Peter Somerville said: ‘People don’t need to stop flying but there is a problem and it needs to be fixed.’ For flight crew it is a workplace health and safety issue. ‘It affects the flight crew more because they receive a lot more oxygen and they fly more often,’ he said. 4 But it is a bigger issue than simple occupational health and safety. CASA has deemed that ‘smoke, toxic or noxious fumes inside the aircraft’ are a ‘major defect’.5 Australian Federation of Air Pilots spokesman Lawrie Cox warned: ‘If we get a major incident where two pilots are affected, the outcome would be a disaster.’6
Flight crews felt for a long time that Qantas maintenance standards were not being monitored closely enough by CASA. A Senate inquiry into the administration of the authority highlighted the problems. One submission by retired airworthiness inspector David Klein said that only 20 per cent of Qantas operations overseas had been