The cabin air on commercial flights can get pretty stale and may not smell great. If there’s a malfunction, it could also get severely toxic and potentially deadly. The alleged harm caused by chemicals released into airliner cabins to crews and passengers is the subject of several lawsuits. If you believe you’ve been exposed to chemical fumes on a flight and suffered an injury, contact Tyler Fleck to discuss the situation and your legal rights.
The Fleck Firm is here to help you. We represent residents of Western and Central Kentucky, and across the Bluegrass, who are injured by others. Give us a call at (270) 446-7000 to learn more.
Why Would Cabin Air Become Hazardous?
If you’re in a vehicle and want some fresh air, you can open a window or vent. It’s not that simple when you’re flying. The cruising altitude for an airliner is about 35,000 feet. At that altitude, the air is so thin that inhaling it won’t do you much good, and its temperature is about 65 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. You might freeze to death while breathing it in before you die due to a lack of oxygen.
Outside air is brought into the cabin through the engines, which heat and compress it, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The danger lies in the fact that the bearings in these compressors are lubricated with synthetic oil. Seals designed to prevent oil from leaking into the air can wear, degrade, and fail.
If that occurs, the oil vaporizes and enters the cabin air. The quantity of toxic compounds inhaled by those on the plane depends on the severity of the leak. The masks that supply passengers with air in case of an emergency use the same polluted air.
The fumes (which may smell like “dirty socks,” “wet dog,” “Cheetos,” or “nail polish”) have caused emergency landings, sickened passengers, and impaired pilots’ vision and reaction times midflight. Pilots could become so impaired that they lose control of the aircraft.
Airlines and the two major aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, have minimized research on how hazardous cabin air could be and the potential injuries it can cause. They claim there’s no evidence that enough of these chemicals are released to cause significant harm.
But a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funded study found two chemicals in cabin air that can result in severe injuries: formaldehyde, which harms the nervous system and can cause cancer, and tridecane, which may cause headaches and stupor. Another harmful chemical, tributyl phosphate, was found right at the safe limit.
University of California, Berkeley, researchers in 2021 found that acute formaldehyde exposure resulted in a 78% increase in the chances of developing ALS and a 71% increase in brain cancer. Airline cabin air was found to repeatedly exceed occupational exposure guidelines for formaldehyde, even when small amounts of oil were present in the air supply.
In 2024, FAA investigators acknowledged the toxicity of air contaminants in a report about two 2023 Southwest Airlines flights that struck large birds. The accidents exposed an engine design flaw that led to quarts of oil being dumped into the cabin air supply. It risked exposing pilots to possibly deadly chemical levels “at just 39 seconds.”
Pilot’s Family Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit Day Before Trial
Ron Weiland was 54 years old, an American Airlines pilot, and in good physical shape when he lost his ability to play ping pong. In 2016, Weiland missed the ball entirely when trying to serve. He couldn’t hit shots that he easily handled in the past. Weeks later, he started slurring his words as if he were intoxicated.
His last flight was in 2017, after he couldn’t make passenger announcements. He was later diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It’s known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease” after the star Yankee baseball player stricken by this rapid neurodegenerative disease. It destroys brain cells that control muscles. Weiland died two years later.
Other brain damage to exposed air crew shows cause harm similar to being violently struck. It’s as if these chemicals do to the brain what years of playing professional football or being near an explosive blast may cause.
Two months before the ping pong match, Weiland noticed an intense smell of engine oil as his Boeing 767 taxied down a Miami International Airport runway. He aborted the flight, passengers were taken off the plane, and Weiland stayed onboard to help with the repairs. The engines restarted, the odor returned, and a chemical fog onboard was so thick he couldn’t see beyond fifteen rows of seats.
Towards the end of Weiland’s life, he couldn’t speak. He was given an iPad to help him communicate. He repeatedly wrote “fumes” on it. His family’s lawsuit was settled in 2022 for an undisclosed amount.
A Manufacturer Can’t Escape Liability by Proving Its Product is Safe When Nothing Goes Wrong
Boeing’s response to the Weiland family’s lawsuit was to deny the allegations, stating the plane’s designs were approved by the FAA and that the air in cabins is usually safe. It couldn’t claim that the air was safe during the chemical event involving Weiland because it didn’t know the level of contamination at the time.
The Wall Street Journal found that among the largest U.S. airlines, these events occurred nearly 10 times as often in 2024 as a decade earlier, based on more than a million FAA reports, largely due to issues with an Airbus model. The airline industry can’t dispute that cabin air can be contaminated, so they claim plaintiffs can’t prove what they inhaled caused their injuries.
But the WSJ reports that there are well-documented links between severe brain injuries and brain diseases such as ALS, cancer, dementia, and acute depression. Medical researchers state that one reason direct causation hasn’t been clinically established is that the companies involved won’t allow air quality monitoring on their aircraft.
Under normal conditions, cabin air is generally safe to breathe. But when these seals repeatedly fail, these failures are well known, and produce harmful chemicals that poison those onboard the plane, airlines and plane manufacturers can’t walk away from responsibility because the seals typically work as intended.
The issue isn’t whether a product is safe when everything’s going well. It’s whether it’s safe during actual use. If your vehicle’s seat belts are perfectly functional during everyday driving, but fail in a crash and send you into the dashboard or steering wheel, the manufacturer may be held liable for your injuries.
Speak To a Kentucky Accident Lawyer TodayIf you believe you’ve been injured by chemical exposure during an airline flight and have questions about your legal rights to compensation, contact The Fleck Firm at (270) 446-7000 and schedule your free consultation. We’ll discuss what happened, how Kentucky law may apply, and your best options going forward. Insurance companies have lawyers. You should have one, too.
