Three years ago last month I wrote a column for AIN on the safety risks caused by government officials downplaying risks. What prompted that article then was the novel criminal prosecution of Italian seismologists for downplaying the likelihood of a devastating earthquake in the tiny town of L’Aquila, resulting in inadequate preparations when one struck and the deaths of more than 300 people. According to the prosecution, there were a number of indicators of a major earthquake in the preceding months that the seismologists failed to convey adequately to the public. 

Of course, my interest was in how the issue of downplaying risk related to aviation. In that article, I talked about the image forever in my mind of the press conference literally at the site of the watery grave of hundreds of ValuJet victims in the Everglades where the then Secretary of Transportation, flanked by the then FAA Administrator, reassured the public that ValuJet was a safe airline. Of course, those assurances were undercut only weeks later when the FAA issued an emergency order revoking ValuJet’s air carrier certificate. Eventually, information was revealed that indicated the FAA had known long before the fiery crash of ValuJet Flight 592 that much was wrong with the way the airline was being operated. A number of high-level officials lost their jobs in the wake of those revelations. I don’t mean that anyone actually got fired. But in the FAA way–pretty typical of government in general (note that the VA Hospital scandal has resulted in a few retirements but no punishments, to date)–high-level officials were pressured to take early retirements or transfer to less high-profile positions far from 800 Independence Ave, SW.

Ebola and the Airline Industry

What prompts this article is the information from government officials related to the Ebola outbreak and the possible implications for air travelers, crewmembers and, perhaps most important, aircraft cleaners. As I write this, the first Ebola victim in the U.S. has died and two nurses caring for him have themselves become infected. [Those two nurses were later released from the hospital, testing negative for the disease.–Ed.] The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden, offered reassuring statements that any hospital in the United States that handled infectious diseases could handle an Ebola patient. As I write this it has become glaringly obvious that those statements were patently untrue. Not only did the first hospital to handle an Ebola case botch the diagnosis, but it also failed to take proper steps to prevent the spread of the disease to two of its nurses. On top of that, the CDC had been repeatedly warned that its own protocols for preventing the spread of the disease were inadequate. It was not until the two nurses were infected with Ebola that the CDC was forced to upgrade its requirements, although even now they are not at the level of those used by Ebola experts at Doctors Without Borders, arguably the most familiar with preventing contamination of healthcare workers and, significantly for this article, janitors who clean up after sick patients and are most at risk, along with healthcare workers, of coming in contact with infectious fluids and catching Ebola themselves or spreading it to others.

In light of what has occurred, how prepared is the airline industry? If nurses aren’t protected from the spread of disease, how realistic is it to assume that those likely to be most in contact with sick passengers or their fluids–flight attendants and aircraft cleaners–will have the protective gear and the training to avoid contaminating themselves and spreading the disease? The video making its way around social media of one of the nurses with Ebola being loaded on a charter flight speaks volumes about the preparation of airlines and air charter companies for dealing with infectious diseases, especially one as deadly as Ebola. If you haven’t seen the video, it shows several hazmat-suited individuals assisting the patient in boarding the aircraft handing a parcel back and forth to a man dressed in everyday work clothes, no hazmat suit, no gloves, no mask, no goggles. There’s no explanation of who he is, but for him to be on the ramp it’s likely he worked for either the charter company or the airport. This breach of infectious disease protocol is disturbing when you’re talking about a highly contagious virus with a 50- to 70-percent mortality rate.

Of greater concern, however, is the lack of urgency in training aviation frontline workers in preventing the spread of the disease and in failing to provide them with appropriate protective equipment. This is true for both flight attendants and airport cleaners (both those who clean aircraft and those who clean terminals, especially lavatories in the airplanes and airports) who are the airline employees most likely to come in contact with the fluids generated by sick passengers. 

While the CDC came out with guidelines for airline crews several months ago, having guidance and following that guidance by ensuring that people are properly trained and that the protective gear is available are two very different things. Some of the equipment recommended by the CDC to deal with the high infectious nature of Ebola is not standard equipment on airlines or in airports. No airline I’m familiar with carries or has available plastic shoe covers, goggles or face shields or full-length, full-sleeved gowns for crew use.  

One union that represents a large number of airport and aircraft cleaners (Service Employees International Union) has publicly stated that it has received many reports of under-trained, under-equipped workers coming into contact with vomit, blood, feces and other bodily fluids. Concerned about the vulnerability of these employees, the union has begun its own training to make employees at least aware of the CDC precautions. Without the proper training in donning and removing protective gear and in cleaning potentially contaminated fluids, employees are at risk of catching or spreading Ebola. It would be unfortunate if the airline industry did not learn the lessons from Dallas and take immediate steps to train and protect its frontline workers.