It’s good to be back! Last week I spent some time in Virginia for the holidays; it’s a very lovely state full of mountains, trees, fresh air, and more. While I was vacationing, this news article caught my eye. Apparently some passengers and crew members onboard an Alaska Airlines flight at Seattle-Tacoma airport got their noses a little too close to De-Icing fumes – the fumes filled the cabin. Many passengers were violently ill and had irritated eyes, but did not want to disembark the craft after waiting quite some time for this flight (some, for days).
It’s unknown what is the cause of the fume leakage. The FAA and Alaska Airlines are reportedly looking into the incident. Passengers of the plane did re-board the flight after returning to the gate and landed safely in Burbank, CA. De-icing fluid is a standard product that’s used just about every day during this season – it allows all of the aircraft’s moving parts to keep moving despite a problem of ice on the aircraft prior to takeoff. It’s odd that this happened; remember Alaska Airlines is an all-Boeing 737NG fleet. However perhaps a vent / air intake valve was not secured by the crew.
