Toxic fumes leaking into commercial aircraft cabins are being blamed for catastrophic outcomes among flight crews — including fatal heart attacks, neurodegenerative disease, suicides and life-altering brain injuries, according to a report.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that hundreds of pilots and flight attendants worldwide have reported serious illnesses linked to toxic “fume events,” with autopsies, medical records and mortality studies tying the exposure to an assortment of maladies up to and including death — even as the aviation industry disputes a direct causal link.
One of the most striking cases involved Ron Weiland, a 54-year-old American Airlines pilot who was in good physical shape when he abruptly lost coordination in late 2016 — just months after reporting an intense smell of engine oil and thick fog inside his Boeing 767 while taxiing at Miami International Airport.
He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease — in June 2017 and rapidly declined, losing the ability to speak and communicating through an iPad, where his widow later said he repeatedly typed a single word: “fumes.”
Weiland died in January 2019.
Weiland’s widow later sued Boeing, alleging his exposure to contaminated cabin air triggered the disease, and the company settled the case in 2022 on the eve of jury selection for an undisclosed amount while denying any wrongdoing.
Another case involved James Anderberg, a 53-year-old Spirit Airlines pilot who was exposed to toxic fumes aboard an Airbus A319 in July 2015 and later collapsed in the cockpit as his first officer scrambled to force an oxygen mask over his face during descent into Boston, fearing they might lose control of the aircraft.
Anderberg never recovered, suffering tremors, confusion and worsening coordination before dying of a heart attack just 50 days later, with a medical examiner ruling the cause of death “undetermined” and unable to confirm or rule out the role of toxic fume exposure, according to the Journal.
Eric Tellman, his first officer, later wrote a letter to his union saying that the fumes left him so disoriented he feared he might pass out.
“To be clear: had I not donned my oxygen mask on that July flight, we would have killed every person on that aircraft,” wrote in the letter.
In the days that followed, Anderberg and his co-pilot were bedridden with vomiting, diarrhea and tremors.
Pilots who later flew with him reported that his hand-eye coordination never returned, including one flight where he parked the aircraft so crooked that ground crews had to reposition it, according to the Journal.
The Journal also detailed the death of Matthew Bass, a 34-year-old British Airways flight attendant who collapsed suddenly in 2014 after weeks of unexplained weight loss, coordination problems and near-constant fatigue.
Bass had been eating pizza and drinking with colleagues when he went to lie down and abruptly stopped breathing.
After his death, Bass’s parents commissioned a specialist postmortem by a Dutch forensic pathologist and sent tissue from his brain to a US neurotoxicology lab, both of which found extensive nervous-system damage consistent with exposure to heated engine oils, according to the Journal.
But a coroner later cited high alcohol levels and said there was insufficient evidence to conclusively link fumes to his death.
The Journal report also detailed the case of Andy Laczko, a 63-year-old American Airlines pilot who spiraled after being exposed to fumes on an Airbus A330 in early 2018, losing weight rapidly, suffering severe pain and anxiety, and ultimately killing himself just months later after a failed overdose attempt.
Laczko’s widow later said the fumes left him a “completely different person,” frightened and unsure, after mechanics mistakenly repaired the wrong engine on the stranded aircraft — even as he continued to complain of head and muscle pain in the days following the flight.
In another severe incident cited by the Journal, seven US Airways crew members were exposed to toxic fumes aboard a Boeing 767 in January 2010.
Within 18 months, six were diagnosed by separate doctors with chemically induced brain injuries. Two later died of cancer and the captain ultimately took his own life, according to the Journal.
Boeing and the airline industry have long disputed claims that toxic cabin air can cause serious illness or death, maintaining that fume events are rare and that existing research is inconclusive, with the aircraft manufacturer insisting that cabin air aboard its planes meets federal safety standards.
The Post has sought comment from Boeing, the FAA, American Airlines, Spirit, British Airways, the Air Line Pilots Association and the National Transportation Safety Board.
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