British Airlines 'face multiple toxic air claims'

The cases are funded by the Unite union which represents 20,000 flight staff.

Workers believe they have fallen sick after breathing in fumes mixed with engine oil and other toxic chemicals.

 

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says incidents of smoke or fumes on planes are rare and there is no evidence of long-term health effects.

Oxygen masks

The Unite union, which is calling for a public inquiry into contaminated cabin air, has recently opened a dedicated legal unit to record and process claims from its membership. 

Its lawyers are now working on 17 "definite" individual personal injury claims against British airlines in the civil courts, although these are still at an early stage.

Uncensored safety reports submitted to the CAA, and obtained by the Victoria Derbyshire programme, show that between April 2014 and May 2015 there were 251 separate incidents of fumes or smoke inside a large passenger jet operated by a British airline.

 

The BBC has, where possible, chosen not to include cases which could be blamed on an internal fault like a broken toilet or air conditioning system.

The statistics do not include international airlines, such as Lufthansa and Ryanair, even when travelling in British airspace.

An illness was reported in 104 of the 251 cases, and on at least 28 of those flights oxygen was administered.

The programme has also seen first-hand testimony from a pilot working for a major UK airline who believes he was affected by toxic fumes while landing at Birmingham Airport in 2014.

"Almost instantly myself and the captain became very unwell and decided it was bad enough to place our oxygen masks on," he said.

"We didn't declare a mayday - mostly due to not being able to think of the words needed to say - and ended up auto-landing the plane and simply briefing, 'Whoever is alive or conscious, pull back the thrust levels after touchdown.' It was that serious."

Around half the air on board most modern commercial jets is drawn through the engines.

Campaigners say when a fault occurs in the engine seals, a cocktail of potentially poisonous gases can reach the cabin. This includes TCP, an organophosphate known to be dangerous to human health in high enough quantities.

It is repeated exposure to such fume events - combined with long-term, low-level exposure to chemicals - which some cabin crew believe has damaged their long-term health.

The problems are said to affect the central nervous system and brain.

The CAA says there is no evidence that chemicals appear at high enough concentrations to cause harm.

How safe is air quality on planes?