American Airlines To Phase Out Complimentary Cabin Pressurization

[Markinsa]

American Airlines To Phase Out Complimentary Cabin Pressurization

FT. WORTH, TX—Explaining that the costs of the service have grown too high in recent years, American Airlines announced Tuesday that it will no longer offer free cabin pressurization to passengers starting March 15. “Unfortunately, to stay competitive as a legacy carrier in today’s air travel market, it no longer makes economic sense for us to provide breathable air at altitude,” said American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, noting that despite the cutbacks, air pressurization would still be available to first- and business-class travelers as well as those willing to pay an additional fee. “While we regret any altitude sickness, blood problems, dimmed vision, or hyperventilation that may result from air pressure less than a third normal levels, we remind our customers that such effects will diminish as soon as the aircraft descends below 10,000 feet.” Parker added that the company is also planning to discontinue complimentary landing gear on flights under four hours.

[bigwave]

Sounds like some good ol' fake news to me. LOL

[Theseus]

In Aircrew, pilot and NFO training, the Navy bills a simulated military flight to observe hypoxia, lack of oxygen to the brain, as the Navy's only free high. Hypoxia can result from sudden depressurization or a leak over a period of time. 18 candidates, 9 to a side, plus three instructors are put into a chamber that simulates the atmospheric conditions one would experience during a military flight. Usually this means the simulated plane would be at a cruising altitude of 32K feet and a pressurized cabin between roughly 17,000 and 20,000 feet. Due to this, oxygen masks must be worn. During this exercise, candidates are instructed to remove their oxygen masks after reaching cruising altitude. They are given tasks they must perform. These tasks include writing their signature, playing patty-cake with a partner or some other simple task. The instructors carefully watch each individual and the instructor will then either tell each candidate to place their oxygen mask back on or after a certain amount of time has elapsed those without oxygen masks on need to put them back on. The results from observing hypoxia in this setting can be extremely funny as in one case of patty-cake where the individuals kept missing each other's hands. Or in the case of writing signatures, the candidate can write three or four signatures for everyone they write. The exercise is to demonstrate what happens at altitude and what can go very wrong leading to the death of the pilot and all aboard. While this may seem like a "fun" subject to talk about, I know all too well the ramifications one can experience from this as not only I observed the effects of hypoxia on my body, I also suffered from not having a proper fitting oxygen mask leading to Decompression Sickness Type 2 and spent 2 nights in the ICU and 13 hours in a hyperbaric chamber in recovery. This resulted in temporary partial paralysis, damage to the Sciatic nerve, 10th Cranial nerve, chronic tinnitus and never ever being able to fly in an airplane, even commercially, or to go scuba diving.  Traumatic Brain Injury aside this also led to PTSD and Oxygen Toxicity of the lungs. It is always fun to laugh at this but the ramifications are real and the results are even more so. Hypoxia has caused more pilot deaths in the military than any other form and is why it is taken so seriously. While this accident occurred in the line-of-duty, the accident did not take place when the country was at war, so I was denied all benefits that are normally granted to those individuals who served at the time when the country was considered at war. To find these dates, one needs to venture over to the VA.gov website in order to look those dates up.    

Edited March 2, 2017 by Theseus