Alaska incident at SEA?

BobDDuck

Island Bus Driver
CNN is reporting that an Alaska Airlines flight sucked deicing fluid into the "ventilation" system and there are multiple injuries with several critical.

I'm not exactly sure how the packs work on a 737, but I really can't think of a way that anything more than the smell of the glycol could get in. And even if the fluid was sprayed IN the cabin itself... it would be pretty nasty, but I don't see it critically injuring people.

We'll see in a bit I guess.
 
From the Seattle Times:

De-icer leak causes jet evacuation
Fumes from de-icing fluid that leaked inside an Alaska Airlines flight cabin have led to eye irritation in 20 passengers, who were escorted off a plane this morning by medics at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

By Seattle Times staff
Fumes from de-icing fluid that leaked inside an Alaska Airlines jet cabin have led to eye irritation in 20 passengers, who were escorted off the plane this morning by medics at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Apparently, the eye irritation was "minor ... but [the airlines] just decided to be safe rather than sorry" by sending in medical personnel, said Charla Skaggs, spokeswoman for the Port of Seattle.

More information will be available later.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008556560_webicer24m.html
 
Yea, in the Q400 at Horizon, we had to turn off the bleed air from the APU during de-ice ops due to getting fumes in the system...it happened my first trip on IOE in Bellingham, WA.

We started the APU and getting the aircraft warm...ops started to de-ice with letting us know they were starting...and it was a pretty nasty smell...

CNN is the world's best at blowing things out of the water when it comes to airlines. I know they monitor Atlanta Approach freq's to catch anything that might happen coming into ATL
 
We did when I worked there. We had to choice of pushing the dash out, which we always do. Or we could de-ice at the gate, which we never did because of too many equipment in the way.
 
Looks like Velo got the ground crew to punish a Virgin America Jumpseater who slipped past without asking for a ride.
:sarcasm:
 
Inside scoop is the deicing crew started squirting before the pilots had the bleeds configured. Doesn't take too much fluid to smoke the cabin.
 
CNN is reporting that an Alaska Airlines flight sucked deicing fluid into the "ventilation" system and there are multiple injuries with several critical.

I'm not exactly sure how the packs work on a 737, but I really can't think of a way that anything more than the smell of the glycol could get in. And even if the fluid was sprayed IN the cabin itself... it would be pretty nasty, but I don't see it critically injuring people.

We'll see in a bit I guess.

Agree. I saw that this morning and I've even seen people sprayed right in the head, dried himself off and flew six more legs that day.
 
Agree. I saw that this morning and I've even seen people sprayed right in the head, dried himself off and flew six more legs that day.

One morning in Chattanooga the ramp crew started to deice us while we were still at the gate with the door open. Fortunately it was just a gate agent standing in the doorway when a wall of Type I started cascading into the airplane.
 
When I was working the ramp I deiced a lot. I have been covered in the glycol head to to from the spray and never had an ill effects. Even in the eyes and I do have to say when its warm and sprays back into your mouth it tastes like candy!
 
DOW MSDS said:
Product Name: UCAR(TM) Aircraft Deicing/Anti-Icing Fluid ULTRA+
SAE/ISO Type IV Fluid

Potential Health Effects
Eye Contact: May cause slight eye irritation. Corneal injury is unlikely. Vapor or mist may cause eye irritation.

Skin Contact: Brief contact is essentially nonirritating to skin. Prolonged contact may cause slight skin irritation with local redness. Repeated contact may cause skin irritation with local redness.

Skin Absorption: Prolonged skin contact is unlikely to result in absorption of harmful amounts.

Repeated skin exposure to large quantities may result in absorption of harmful amounts. Massive contact with damaged skin or of material sufficiently hot to burn skin may result in absorption of
potentially lethal amounts.

Inhalation: At room temperature, exposure to vapor is minimal due to low volatility. With good ventilation, single exposure is not expected to cause adverse effects. If material is heated or areas are poorly ventilated, vapor/mist may accumulate and cause respiratory irritation and symptoms such as headache and nausea.


Ingestion: Oral toxicity is expected to be moderate in humans due to ethylene glycol even though tests with animals show a lower degree of toxicity. Small amounts swallowed incidentally as a result of normal handling operations are not likely to cause injury; however, swallowing larger amounts may cause serious injury, even death. May cause nausea and vomiting. May cause abdominal discomfort or diarrhea. Excessive exposure may cause central nervous system effects, cardiopulmonary effects (metabolic acidosis), and kidney failure.

Effects of Repeated Exposure: Repeated excessive exposure may cause irritation of the upper respiratory tract. The data presented are for the following material: Ethylene glycol. In humans, effects have been reported on the following organs: Central nervous system. Observations in humans include: Nystagmus (involuntary eye movement). In animals, effects have been reported on the following organs: Kidney. Liver.

Birth Defects/Developmental Effects: Based on animal studies, ingestion of very large amounts of ethylene glycol appears to be the major and possibly only route of exposure to produce birth defects. Exposures by inhalation or skin contact, the primary routes of occupational exposure, had minimal effect on the fetus, in animal studies.

Reproductive Effects: Ingestion of large amounts of ethylene glycol has been shown to interfere with
reproduction in animals.
 
Yea, at Horizon the standard proceedure was to push back from the gate with the APU on and in GEN Mode. After you got the all clear from the de-ice guys, you'd start up the engines and then you could cut the bleeds on.
 
Here's the deal with our deicing. Usually we deice with the engines shut down, APU running. To configure the airplane you turn the APU and engine bleeds off, the packs off, run the trim full nose down.

Once the deicing is finsihed, reset the trim and turn the APU bleed on. Then you start the engines. You let the engines run for 1 minute to burn up all the glycol that may have pooled in the nacelles.

The problem is this (and I experienced it when I was new to the airplane). Starting the engines with the engine bleed switches off is counterintuitive. Because of their placement on the panel it sort of looks like they need to be on for the APU bleed air to get to the starter motor. They don't. The engine bleed air switches are there to isolate the airconditioning system from the engine bleed air system. They have nothing to do with starting the airplane.

Remember, we stopped flying the MD-80 in August. So we have a LOT of new Captains and F/Os who are not really all that familiar with the bleed air/airconditioning systems and how they interact. I had an F/O the day before yesterday who wanted to turn the engine bleeds on after we deiced so we could start the engines. Its a common error when you're new to the jet.

I suspect that may have had something to do with this incident.
 
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