Last night, Frontier Airlines flight 2074 from Las Vegas to San Antonio was diverted to El Paso after six passengers in the front of the cabin felt ill. According to a Frontier spokesperson speaking to KTSM 9 News, it was “a fume event.”
A fume event? What the heck is a fume event?! It turns out it was a “possible carbon monoxide leak” according to emergency dispatchers heard on scanners. You know a spokesperson wouldn’t ever want to say that it was possibly a deadly carbon monoxide leak.
According to another local El Paso station, ABC-7, passengers said “they smelled strong chemical fumes midway through the flight, which prompted the emergency landing in El Paso.” And when they landed “you could see all the ambulances — yeah, dozens of ambulances, fire department and everything. Scared us to death. And then they told us, this is a quote, ‘if anyone else feels nauseous, sick to your stomach, please come to the front of the plane. Everyone else remain seated.'”
The spokesperson went on to say “the aircraft landed safely in El Paso. Customers remain in the airport at this time and are being provided food and will be re-accommodated on an alternate aircraft arriving from Denver later this evening which will transport them to their original destination of San Antonio.”
And guess what Frontier Airlines gave the passengers for their inconvenience? A $200 travel voucher for Frontier Airlines. Uh, no thank you. Won’t be flying them anytime soon.
I think the $200 voucher is amazing! It’s not their fault they have the leak and it could’ve happened on any airline!
Been flying frontier for a long time, best bang for the buck. Much better than getting punched in the face by a flight attendant on a United flight.
I doubt you would have flown on them even before this…..
I’ve ever only flown Frontier a couple times, SFO LAS for like $50 roundtrip. I’d be grateful for $200. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything more serious.
Johnny, I appreciate this blog. Carbon monoxide poisoning is a serious matter. Symptoms include; (1) dull headaches, (2) weakness, (3) dizziness, (4) nausea or vomiting, (5) shortness of breath, (6) confusion, (7) blurred vision, and (loss of consciousness. People poisoned to this may have irreversible brain damage or even die before anyone realizes there is a problem. This is because carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless, and tasteless (Mayo Clinic, 2019).
If I was affected, I would want to understand the facts about what led to the “fume event”. I cannot think of anything other than jet fuel burning on that plane. Jetfuel is typically made of petroleum products such as naphtha, gasoline, or kerosene (Google, 2021). I wouldn’t think that I need to reference the health consequences of jet fuel carbon monoxide poisoning.
The good news on this is that carbon monoxide levels can be easily tested using CO2 monitors. Whether major airlines use them, I don’t know. I’d need to have someone help me with this answer. Should they, absolutely. Just think if this would have happened in the cockpit?
Thanks again for this post. Stay safe everyone!
– Christian
Reference;
Carbon monoxide poisoning – Symptoms and causes. (2019, October 16). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/carbon-monoxide/symptoms-causes/syc-20370642
what is jet fuel made of – Google Zoeken. (2021). google.com. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+jet+fuel+made+of&rlz=1C1FKPE_enUS965US965&oq=What+is+jet+fuel+made+of&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j0i22i30l5j0i390l3.10319j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
The body of the article does not mention “carbon monoxide”, and does contain the phrase “strong chemical fumes”. Carbon monoxide is odorless. It is mentioned only in the headline “possible carbon monoxide leak”. This is highly irresponsible journalism. The plane was diverted due to smelly fumes, not an odorless, deadly gas. If course, carbon monoxide leaks are always possible because they are so difficult to detect. But to speculate about carbon monoxide when there is a direct, clear and convincing explanation for what occurred is dangerousness, misleading and fear-mongering.
FUME EVENT COMPENSATION As to the paltry payment, compensation for the fume event, Frontier Airlines is what it is, a no frills airline.
They have disappointed this frequent flyer at times too. But they are a bargain and they fly new aircraft. So we take the good with the bad. Frontier is still hovering four start with this traveler.
Still wondering though, wanting, a bit more depth about what the “fume event” was.
And what exactly you were expecting them to do? To give away a brand new NEO to each passenger with crew and everything? Or wait a minute $2000 each? For been a supposedly heavy travel to 20+ “Countries” you don’t understand airlines do you? This report is completely idiotic.
I surprised that you think $200.00 is not even close to being acceptable with you. What do you think Frontier Airlines should have done for the passengers who were sickened? What should they have done for the other passengers?
Other than the cringe-worthy phrase “fume event,” I don’t understand what you have to criticize. What SHOULD Frontier have done? I don’t think another airline would have handled the matter very differently.
This ‘fumes’ issue has been around for a long time, it is complicated, and agencies, manufacturers, and airlines keep scratching their heads bringing no solutions. There is a technical link that I can’t find (perhaps removed) that shows the culprit being a concerning flaw in basic design shared by most jetliners. The solution being grounding most aircraft and replacing them with new aircraft with superior engineering, technology and design. This of course is not likely and unrealistic given the low incidence of these occurrences. Also, superior design may prove to be more costly for current types and models and since there is no mandate, they are saving their money of course. It is infuriating but also frustrating when you think higher costs trickle down to higher ticket prices. Even with all this, aviation remains one of the safest forms of transportation, better than a car and even as a pedestrian on a busy city street. Check the statistics. Hope you find these links at least interesting.
https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/fedex/13179-757-crews-fuming-over-poor-cabin-air-quality.html
https://www.aviationgazette.com/us-airways-pilot-dies-because-of-engine-oil-fumes-incidentaccident-6-years-ago/
https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/08/ba-pilot-died-inhaling-toxic-cabin-air-9133942/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/flight-crew-members-toxic-air-plane-cabin-harmed/story?id=43231109
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/66569765/coroner-pilot-died-from-aircrafts-toxic-fumes
https://jalopnik.com/toxic-fumes-on-planes-are-knocking-out-pilots-and-makin-1845906313
https://www.fumeevents.com/
I was on that flight and called to find out if the vouchers had an expiration date. I was assured they did not. Well, I tried to use them recently and lo and behold they are expired of course!!