British Airways B763 near London on Nov 17th 2016, fumes affect flight attendants

Last Update: September 18, 2020 / 18:15:33 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Nov 17, 2016

Classification
Accident

Flight number
BA-429

Aircraft Registration
G-BZHA

Aircraft Type
Boeing 767-300

ICAO Type Designator
B763

A British Airways Boeing 767-300, registration G-BZHA performing flight BA-429 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to London Heathrow,EN (UK), was enroute at FL240, cabin drinks service had just been completed, when the flight attendants returned to the galleys to stow the carts, when two flight attendants began to feel unwell with headache, dizziness and difficulties to concentrate. One of the flight attendants in the rear galley felt she could no longer safely keep on her feet, needed to sit down and was administered oxygen before being relocated to one of the seats in the forward cabin where she sat for the remainder of the flight. The flight crew requested medical services on stand by for the arrival of the aircraft and performed a NITS (Nature of Problem, Intention, Time needed, Special Instructions) briefing while descending towards London. The aircraft landed safely on Heathrow's runway 27R.

An engineer entered the aircraft to assess the conditions on board while emergency services began to assess the flight attendants and provided first aid. After a few minutes the engineer also began to feel sick. Six of the seven flight attendants were taken to Hillingdon Hospital for assessment. The passengers subsequently disembarked.

The occurrence aircraft returned to service about 19 hours after landing.

The two flight attendants severely affected during the fume event were diagnosed with the same illness just one week apart in 2018. On Aug 29th 2020 The Aviation Herald learned one of the flight attendants affected by the event has died in August 2020.

On Sep 18th 2020 The Aviation Herald received the following statement by a Unite the Union spokesperson, representing British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association: "It is with great sadness that the union has learnt of the death of Estelle and our thoughts are with her family at this time. Unite continues to represent her colleague Nikki, whose health was also badly affected during the same fume event. Unite is supporting legal cases for 220 workers who have suffered illness or injury as a result of being exposed to toxic cabin air. Unite is committed to winning justice for all the affected workers."
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Nov 17, 2016

Classification
Accident

Flight number
BA-429

Aircraft Registration
G-BZHA

Aircraft Type
Boeing 767-300

ICAO Type Designator
B763

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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