There is a “dirty little secret” in the commercial airline industry: the cabin air breathed by flight crew and passengers can become contaminated by the toxic pyrolyzed by-products of jet engine oil, hydraulic fluid, deicing fluid and exhaust fumes. For more than a decade, Littlepage Booth has represented pilots, flight attendants and passengers who were acutely and chronically injured from exposure to contaminated cabin air.

Since 1954, Boeing has known that the air supply system on its airplanes (other than the 787 Dreamliner) can become contaminated by toxic chemicals. Toxic cabin air can make pilots, flight attendants and passengers acutely sick, cause diversions and mid-flight turn-backs, and have required injured crew to be taken straight from the airplane to the hospital by ambulance. Reported contaminated cabin air injuries include acute symptoms of nausea, vomiting, dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, decreased motor skills, numbness and tingling in arms, hands and feet, tremors and balance problems, followed by chronic injuries of toxic brain injury or cognitive impairment such as slowed processing speed, trouble concentrating, brain fog and memory loss.

Ex. 1 is PX 0061
Ex. 2 is PX 5993


Safer technologies are available to prevent these injuries. But Boeing refuses to retrofit its airplanes and install filters in its air supply system to remove the brain-damaging toxins or implement alarms or sensors so the pilots can receive immediate warnings of a contaminated air event and take countermeasures. Boeing’s documents routinely discuss the need for such technologies, but upper management has shown little interest in implementing solutions to this safety problem. As one Boeing engineer noted, it is probably going to take “a tombstone before anyone with any horsepower is going to take interest.”

Ex. 3 is PX 0040

In 2005, at an International Aero Industry Conference, a team of experts from various fields (including executives for the British Airline Pilots Union, physicians and researchers), focused on this safety issue that “has been under the radar for a number of years.” The panel concluded that contaminated cabin air was causing a danger for passengers and “a workplace problem resulting in chronic and acute illness amongst flight crew” resulting in “significant flight safety issues.”.

Ex. 4 is PX 1620

Congress and the FAA have tried nineteen times in the last two decades to force the installation of air filters and sensors on commercial airplanes, but those efforts have been thwarted or stalled.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an in-depth investigative series on the dangers of contaminated cabin air events.

Benjamin Katz et al., Toxic Fumes Are Leaking Into Airplanes, Sickening Crews and Passengers, Wall St. J. (Sept. 13, 2025) (Ex. 5) CLICKING ON EX. 5 NEEDS TO BRING UP the PDF COPY OF THIS ARTICLE

Benjamin Katz, Law Professor Sues Boeing After Alleged Exposure to Toxic Fumes on Flight, Wall St. J. (Dec. 12, 2025) (Ex. 6) CLICKING ON EX. 6 NEEDS TO BRING UP A PDF COPY OF THIS ARTICLE

Benjamin Katz, ‘He Was Poisoned.’ Toxic Fumes on Planes Blamed for Deaths of Pilots and Crew, Wall St. J. (Dec. 21, 2025)(Ex. 7) CLICKING ON EX. 7 NEEDS TO BRING UP the PDF COPY OF THIS ARTICLE