Stale cockpit air may be dulling your airline pilot’s performance

That poorly ventilated conference room isn’t the only place with the potential for sick-air syndrome. Airliner cockpits can also have levels of carbon dioxide elevated enough that in simulations it causes pilots to fail test manoeuvres at higher rates than normal, a new Harvard University study has found. The first-of-its-kind research suggests that current regulations aren’t adequate to assure there’s enough fresh air in airline flight decks and raises questions about whether even moderately elevated carbon dioxide levels could impact safety, said Joseph Allen, an assistant professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health and lead author of the study. “It’s clear that the air quality in the cockpit can have an impact on performance,” Allen said. “It’s clear we haven’t been thinking about it too deeply in terms of the impact on pilot performance." <br/>