Delta Air Lines said it is replacing auxiliary power units (APUs), a type of engine, on its Airbus aircraft to address toxic fume incidents that can harm airline crew and passengers.
Delta is replacing engines that can cause toxic fumes to leak into the aircraft cabin’s air supply, posing health and safety risks to crew members and passengers.
Flight attendants have been calling attention to the issue for years, noting their own experiences with the dangerous toxins.
The leakage of fumes most commonly occurs on the Airbus A320 family of narrowbody jets, a recent Wall Street Journal investigation found.
Delta on Thursday said it is also exploring new synthetic turbine oils from different manufacturers for its engines.
United has a “proactive maintenance program” that tracks the plane engine’s oil consumption and oil pressure, and proactively replaces APU seals to prevent oil leaks and oil burns that would lead to fumes entering airplane cabins, Kirby said. The issue, he added, isn’t a concern on newer airplanes, like Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which have a different design.
Barry Biffle, CEO of Frontier Airlines, which operates an Airbus fleet, said that while the company is following the toxic fume issue, incidents occur very rarely.
