Flybe says crew not refusing to fly fume planes
23.10.07
Flybe has denied reports that some of its cabin crew and pilots are refusing to operate certain of its planes because of safety fears sparked by fumes entering the cabin.
On Sunday the BBC Five Live radio programme reported that planes flown by the budget airline between Birmingham and Belfast City Airport have been contaminated by noxious fumes and claimed that flight crew members are refusing to fly on some of its planes, saying their health and that of passengers is being put at risk.
The BBC reported its investigation found that noxious fumes leaked into aircraft cabins on ten of the airline's flights operating on the Birmingham to Belfast and Gatwick to Belfast routes in the past 15 months. All of the incident involved the same type of aircraft - the 146 made by British Aerospace (BAe).
In the most serious incident two crew members were sick when overcome by fumes during a flight from Birmingham to Belfast in July. On landing, all 7 crew members were taken to hospital, with one of the stewardesses off work for a month.
Responding to the reports, a spokeswoman for the airline did not dispute the number of incidents reported, but denied that any pilots or cabin crew had boycotted BAe 146 planes as a result.
She said that Flybe's BAe 146 fleet will have been withdrawn by February 2008, but this was not connected to the 'fuming' incident. Following the company's takeover of BA Connect earlier this year, the airline is phasing out the older aircraft to leave it with a fleet of more environmentally friendly Embraer 195 and Bombardier Q400 planes.
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