general

A trickle of airline flights to South Florida were set to begin later Monday, but it would likely be many days until air service returned to normal in the region. Flights at Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando remained grounded Monday afternoon as officials assessed damage and worked on plans to restart service. Flights could resume Tuesday at Miami and Fort Lauderdale, though officials warned the restart of airline service would likely start slowly. At other airports, flights may take longer to restart. In hard-hit Key West, for example, flights looked unlikely before Thursday. For the airport near Fort Myers, it was reported “flights in and out of Southwest Florida International Airport are not expected to begin ramping up before Wednesday at the earliest." <br/>

Flight attendant Kerstin Konrad still remembers her first "fume event" - as the industry calls air inside the aircraft that is possibly contaminated. Konrad says that since 2013 she has experienced a total of 4 such fume events. She says she has on each occasion had headaches and abdominal pain, numbness and confusion and has also suffered permanent health damage meaning she can no longer fly. She has nerve damage and restricted lung functions, both confirmed by a doctor. And she is not alone. Some 228 such fume events were reported to the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation in 2016 alone. And the number of cases reported by pilots and cabin staff to their employers may be even higher. <br/>