Coroner investigating pilot death warns of toxic fumes
A coroner has submitted a report about toxic fumes in plane cabins to the CAA following an investigation into the death of a British Airways pilot.
Sheriff Stanhope Payne, the senior coroner for Dorset, claims that those who are regularly exposed to fumes in planes face ‘consequential damage to their health’.
It follows a report into the death of co-pilot Richard Westgate, who died aged 43 in December 2012.
His family are convinced that he was the victim of ‘aerotoxic syndrome’ and therefore poisoned to death by toxic fumes from plane cabins, reports the Daily Mail.
Mr Payne, who is due to open the inquest into Mr Westgate’s death within the next two months, said that examinations of Mr Westgate’s body ‘disclosed symptoms consistent with exposure to organophosphate compounds in aircraft cabin air’.
He has written to BA and the CAA to warn them that ‘there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken’ and asked for responses.
A spokesman for the CAA confirmed it had received the report and said it ‘will review in detail and respond to the coroner accordingly’.
Diane
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