Pics attached highlight a point made in my opening post

The two pics attached highlight a point made in my opening statement. The soot/dirt fell from the ventilation ducts completely on to a passenger in one incident and in the one I have taken a discrete pic of the soot also landed on the floor and on a pax’s trousers.

In my opening post in this thread I stated –

“Indirectly related albeit to LHR only is –

Interestingly the London Underground Piccadilly Line which carries many thousand LHR pax and staff a day has the poorest control of it’s on board carriage/compartment filters.

Twice I have seen with my own eyes black soot/dust fall in great lumps on to pax clothes from the overhead filters/ventilation units.”

I attach two pics of one of the two incidents I saw with my own eyes.

It particularly occurs during extra fast speeds that the Piccadilly Line Underground Trains get up to e.g. between LHR T5 and T1,2,3 stations.

If and when you are in any London underground stations look where possible along the track into the tunnels at either end of the platform. Also sometimes the train passes illuminated stretches of track and a glance through the windows will give you a sight similar to that described. The soot, dust and dirt are excessive.

This is the ‘filth’ inhaled by most pax including those travelling to and from LHR.

The problem is compounded if the pax from LHR are coming from aircraft “not so responsible” airlines that aren’t being maintained. These pax may have collectively become carriers of bacteria and viruses by being in an enclosed space (aircraft) with others who had illnesses or were already carriers.

On some long haul sectors on an aircraft, one has just to try to use the toilets and one reaslises how bad some pax hygiene and habits are.

I respect that the London Underground has been serving us well for 150 years BUT ……. shouldn’t passengers breathe as ‘clean air’ as possible now and in the future?

To complain to the authorities about London Underground will probably invoke a strike.

One advantage a pax on London Underground has is that they can chose alternative means of travel which isn’t possible with aircraft (once inside you are stuck inside until the next airport at least).

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Some food for thought for you good (innovative) aircraft engineers

Here is a not so distant (2012) incident albeit not proven to be bacterial or viral but where the cabin air contamination was a problem.

Some extracts from –

AAIB Bulletin: 5/2013 D-AIRX EW/G2012/10/12 © Crown copyright 2013 See attachment

pp 24 “During the tests the cabin air quality was assessed by an electronic analyser;”
pp 24 “The circulation fans were checked and the recirculation and avionic filters were inspected and replaced. The recirculation filter was later subjected to gas chromatography analysis:”
pp 24-25 “Over the years there have been numerous reviews,studies and research projects on air quality events,conducted in a number of countries. There is a general acceptance that cabin air can be contaminated by compounds released in pyrolysed oil from engines and auxiliary power units.”

1 References and extensive supporting literature can be found in numerous sources, including the 2010 Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Expert Panel on Aircraft Air Quality (EPAAQ) Final Report, and in the summary report, Health Effects of Contaminants in Aircraft Cabin Air, by Prof Michael Bagshaw, October 2012.

A prolonged economic recession is an ideal opportunity for innovative and professional aircraft engineers (many on this forum) to think of ways to help reduce the impact on the UK’s economy by thinking pro-actively. An economic recession is no different to a big bad war (in fact it is an economic war) and it has been shown that in both great wars Britain innovated and produced a wealth of R&D projects to the benefit of all of us current generations.