If you haven’t yet heard, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), apparently in consultation with Homeland Security, required all US airlines to disable their lavatory oxygen generators to “eliminate a potential safety and security vulnerability.” The airlines have complied with the directive.
In the event of an emergency, while most of the plane will have emergency oxygen available, lavatories will not. In an emergency, passengers in lavatories will have to quickly get to their seats, or hope a flight attendant can assist them with portable oxygen units before anoxic brain or lung injury occurs.
The FAA has justified putting lives at risk, by saying their action will save lives. I wonder if that’s true, and if the FAA’s action is the best solution.
According to NBC News, the FAA said they took the action, spelled out in FAA Air Worthiness Directive 2011-04-09, proactively, in response not to a specific threat, but to general concerns that a terrorist could use the lavatory oxygen to start a fire or make a bomb.
It’s been almost 10 years since the September 11th attacks. After doing nothing about this risk all these years, the federal government has to rush, to act to mitigate this risk, which endangers passengers lives? I don’t understand the logic of their action.
In his statement, FAA spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said,
“Rapid decompression events on commercial aircraft are extremely rare. If there is a sudden loss of cabin pressure, pilots are already trained to guide the aircraft to a safe, breathable altitude as quickly as possible. Flight attendants are also already trained to assist passengers to quickly access oxygen – including those in the lavatories.”
Are rapid decompression events actually “extremely rare?” I don’t think so. According to a report by the Aviation Medical Society of Australia and New Zealand, at least 40 to 50 rapid decompression accidents occur every year. While they are not an every day occurrence, I wouldn’t call these incidents, “extremely rare.”
Just last October, American Airlines’ flight 1640 had a two foot hole open in its fuselage at 31,000 feet. The 154 passengers and crew had to use their emergency oxygen masks while the plane returned to Miami International.
It’s true that flight attendants are trained to assist passengers in the event of aircraft decompression. The problem is that when decompression occurs, and the emergency oxygen masks drop down, the “atmosphere” in the airplane isn’t exactly “calm, cool, and collected.”
I question the ability of the flight attendants to act quickly enough to save passengers’ lives who were in a lavatory at the onset of an emergency, in the chaotic, confusing, and the sometimes debris strewn dangerous conditions of a decompression emergency.
Edward Croce was on board American Airlines’ flight 1640. He said, “It was pretty chaotic and confusing. It just was kind of surreal. We kind of looked at each other when the masks came from the ceiling and thought, ‘This is it.’ We were shaken up and everyone was in shock.”
An emergency descent from a cruising altitude of 39,000 feet at 6,000 fpm to about 10,000 feet would take about 5 minutes.
For an average healthy adult, at about 39,000 feet, their time of useful consciousness, the time they are able to perform efficiently with inadequate oxygen to breathe, is 15 to 20 seconds. Assuming it takes about 15 seconds to begin descending, passengers have about 30 seconds to pull up their trousers, dress or skirt, unlatch the lavatory door, open it, and make their way to their seat to get emergency oxygen before they pass out.
That’s just 30 seconds in a chaotic, confusing, sometimes dangerous situation while in panic mode, and the elderly, those with heart or pulmonary conditions, children, smokers, and those physically exerting themselves, (passengers trying to get from the lavatory to their seat), will have even less time.
In this age of electronic and engineering miracles I can’t believe that in the almost 10 years since 9/11, or even in the last few months, the FAA couldn’t have figured out a way to secure the lavatory’s emergency oxygen, or to alert planes’ crews of an attempt to tamper with it, instead of disabling it?
Aircraft doors and hatches are fitted with sensors which indicate if they are open, loose, or not properly seated. Why not use a sensor to alert the crew if someone was tampering with the access panel to a lavatory’s emergency oxygen, so they can act on the warning?
Passengers on Qantas flight 30, heading for Melbourne from London in 2008, heard a loud bang, then felt huge gusts of wind in the cabin from a expansive hole in the side of their 747. Rapid decompression of the cabin ensued. Swirling debris filled the air as the emergency oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling.
Passenger Peter Cowan said, “A number of passengers began to panic. One in particular was fairly panicked and there was a couple of hostesses trying to fan her down. She was just freaking out a little bit.”
Mr. Cowan and the other passengers had emergency oxygen, yet there was panic and confusion on the plane.
If a Qantas type accident would occur next week, what would happen to a passenger in the lavatory, partly undressed, dirty, gasping for air, muscle coordination failing, vision degrading, knowing they had to somehow get back to their seat to survive?
What would happen if that passenger was elderly and couldn’t act fast enough and passed out falling to the lavatory floor, preventing the door from being pushed in, to be opened?
Cells of the brain will start to die within a few minutes if they are deprived of oxygen. “The result is a cascade of problems.”
After surveying the potential consequences of the FAA directive, I believe it’s clear the FAA is needlessly risking passengers’ lives, and has created an intolerable safety problem, even with safer security solutions available.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
