The objectives

The general objective of this research project is to enable step-advances in the analysis of the issues raised by contamination events resulting from oil leakage (incl. oil pyrolysis products) on board commercially operated large transport aeroplanes and the potential toxicological risks in light of the existing European standards and legislation on the quality of indoor air and professional exposure limits.

The main tasks and deliverables

• Collect substantive evidence, by means of laboratory tests, on the chemical substances involved in oil leakages evens from aircraft engine or APU, and their impact on the cabin air quality
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the different scenarios, supported by collected in-service data,  for the contamination by engine or APU oil products that may be observed during flights, considering the complete aircraft bleed air system and air ventilation system
• Perform the toxicological risk assessment of the main identified chemical compounds using available data and through the performance of specific toxicological tests
• Identify the appropriate methods and tools for the investigation of CAC reported events, including the methods to collect samples from aircraft cabin surfaces and ECS system components
• Investigate relevant monitoring actions (e.g. precursors of CAC events) for aircraft operators considering the standard maintenance operations performed on ECS systems