Toxic fumes leaking into planes, sickening those on board: Report

(NewsNation) — A dire warning has been issued for flyers as doctors warn toxic fumes leaking into some plane cabins may be giving pilots, flight attendants and passengers brain and nerve damage.

The Federal Aviation Administration has received thousands of reports since 2010 about toxic fumes bleeding into cockpits and cabins, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The incidents stem from a system known as “bleed air” that pulls breathable air through the aircraft’s engine, the Journal's investigation found.

"While the FAA does not have a definition for a "fume event," airlines are required to file Service Difficulty Reports (SDRs) when smoke, vapor or noxious odors enter the cockpit or passenger cabin," the FAA wrote.

The increase in reports is largely driven by Airbus A320s, which are used by the three largest U.S. airlines. The aircraft experienced seven times the rate of fume events as the Boeing 737, which does not use the design.

For JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, which mostly operate Airbus aircraft, the number of fume incidents saw a combined 660% surge between 2016 and 2024. 

JetBlue flight attendant Florence Chesson told the Journal she was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and permanent nerve damage after breathing in fumes on a flight to Puerto Rico.

“I felt like I was talking gibberish,” Chesson said. “I remember being very repetitive, saying, ‘What just happened to me? What just happened to me?’”

Chesson’s neurologist, Dr. Robert Kaniecki, said the damage was akin to the traumatic injuries football players sustain after hard hits during play.

Kaniecki said he’s treated more than 100 flight attendants and multiple pilots over the past two decades for exposure to contaminated air on flights.

FAA investigators have formally acknowledged that "bleed air" contains toxic contaminants, according to an internal report released last year after a pair of Southwest flights collided with birds in 2023.

According to that report, the strikes exposed a design flaw in the planes' engines that caused them to dump liters of oil into the “bleed air” supply, potentially exposing the pilots to lethal levels of chemicals in under a minute.

Lawmakers have attempted to introduce legislation addressing fume contamination over the past two decades, although industry pushback has stalled or halted those efforts, according to The Hill.

NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.