Aircraft cabins safer than most indoor public spaces

by ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, TOM BALLANTYNE  

November 1st 2020

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It is official, at least as far as the world’s three major commercial jet manufacturers are concerned. Read More » If you want to reduce your chances of catching COVID-19, flying in an aircraft is one of the best places to be. As the world’s airlines continue their fight to win back public confidence in air travel, Airbus, Boeing and Embraer have joined forces to release the results of extensive testing they have commissioned to prove their point.

In a recent online media discussion hosted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) representatives of each of the aircraft OEMs said they had employed separate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research in their aircraft to determine the possibility of COVID-19 transmissions in flight.

The research found that aircraft airflow systems, High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, the natural barrier of the seatback, the downward flow of air and high rates of air exchange efficiently reduced the risk of disease transmission on board in normal times.

Additionally, wearing face coverings provided a significant extra layer of protection that meant being seated in close proximity in an aircraft cabin was safer than most other indoor environments. Methodologies used by each manufacturer differed slightly, but each detailed simulation confirmed aircraft airflow systems control the movement of particles in the cabin thereby limiting virus spread.

IATA’s New Zealand-based medical advisor, Dr. David Powell, said since January 2020 only 44 cases reported cases of COVID-19 are believed to have been associated with a flight journey.

“The risk of a passenger contracting COVID-19 on board appears very low. With only 44 identified potential cases of flight-related transmission from 1.2 billion travellers is one case in every 27 million travellers,” he said.

“We recognize this may be an underestimate, but even if 90% of the cases were unreported, it would be one case for every 2.7 million travellers. These figures are extremely reassuring and the vast majority of published cases occurred before the wearing of face coverings inflight became widespread.”

Airbus Engineering and the leader of the Airbus Keep Trust in Air Travel Initiative, Bruno Fargeon, said the company used CFD to create a highly accurate simulation of air in an A320 cabin to determine how droplets resulting from a cough move in the cabin airflow. The simulation calculated parameters such as air speed, direction and temperature at 50 million points in the cabin or up to 1,000 times per second.

Boeing researchers, also using CFD, tracked the movement of particles around the cabin from coughing and breathing. Various scenarios studied including the coughing passenger with and without a mask, the coughing passenger located in various seats including the middle seat, and different variations of individual overhead passenger air vents (known as gaspers) when on or off.

“This modelling determined the number of cough particles that entered the breathing space of other passengers,” said Boeing chief engineer Confident Travel Initiative, Dan Freeman. “We then compared a similar scenario in other environments, such as an office conference room. Based on the airborne particle count, passengers sitting next to one another on an airplane are the same as standing more than seven feet (or two meters) apart in a typical building environment.”

Embraer analysed the cabin environment by considering a coughing passenger in several different seats and air flow conditions in different aircraft to measure the variables and their effects. Its tests also showed the risk of on board transmission was extremely low. The data on in-flight transmissions that may have occurred supported these findings.

Embraer senior vice-president of engineering, technology and strategy, Luis Carlos Affonso, said: “the human need to travel, to connect and to see our loved ones has not disappeared. In fact, at times like this, we need our families and friends even more.

“Our message today is because of the technology and procedures in place, you can fly safely. All the research demonstrates this. In fact, the cabin of a commercial aircraft is one of the safer spaces available anywhere during this pandemic.”