The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has welcomed the release of testing results by the United States Transportation Command (US Transcom) confirming the low risk of Covid-19 transmission onboard an aircraft.
The US Transcom testing, which was conducted in August, found that “the overall exposure risk from aerosolized pathogens, like coronavirus, is very low” on the types of airline aircraft typically contracted to move Department of Defense (DOD) personnel and their families, US Transcom stated.
More than 300 aerosol releases, simulating a passenger infected with Covid-19, were performed over eight days using United Airlines Boeing 767-300 and 777-200 twin-aisle aircraft.
“Last week, IATA reported that since the start of 2020 there had been 44 cases of Covid-19 reported in which transmission is thought to have been associated with a flight journey, out of 1.2 billion passenger journeys in 2020,” said IATA director general and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac.
“The US Transcom research provides further evidence that the risk of infection on board an aircraft appears to be very low, and certainly lower than many other indoor environments,”
According to the research, when a passenger is seated and wearing a mask, 99.99 percent of particles released into the air from that person were removed from the cabin within six minutes. It takes about 90 minutes to clear the particles in the average home.
The testing showed that the aerosol was “rapidly diluted by the high air exchange rates” of a typical aircraft cabin. Aerosol particles remained detectable for a period of fewer than six minutes on average. Both aircraft models tested removed particulate matter 15 times faster than a typical home ventilation system and five to six times faster “than the recommended design specifications for modern hospital operating or patient isolation rooms.” Testing was done with and without a mask for the simulated infected passenger.
Mannequins were placed in various locations around the cabin and aerosols were released to simulate breathing and coughing with and without surgical masks. More than 300 aerosol releases were performed inflight, and during simulated inflight and on-the-ground testing.
The tests found both aircraft models removed particulate matter 15 times faster than a typical home ventilation system and 5 to 6 times faster “than the recommended design specifications for modern hospital operating or patient isolation rooms.”
In commenting on the report, the International Air Transport Association’s director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said, “The US TRANSCOM research provides further evidence that the risk of infection onboard an aircraft appears to be very low, and certainly lower than many other indoor environments.”
However, the study also makes clear that requiring passengers to wear masks throughout the journey is still a top safety requirement. “We found that on cough stimulations [with the mask], there was a very large reduction in aerosol that would come from the mannequin — greater than 95 percent in most cases,” said David Silcott, an author of the study from S3i, a biological research company. “It greatly showed the benefit of wearing a mask during a flight.”
The release of the TRANSCOM results comes days after the Flight Safety Foundation published its own analysis of the air travel industry’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. In it the Foundation concluded that industry efforts, in which masks play a large role, have succeeded in greatly reducing the possibility of transmission in airports and on aircraft.
The research found, in addition to mandating masks for passengers and
crew, airlines and airports have
implemented other changes to enhance health safety,
including: Improved cleaning and disinfection procedures and technologies, new
boarding and deplaning procedures, contactless check-in and international
airport health accreditation programs.
The testing was conducted in partnership with Boeing and United Airlines, as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Zeteo Tech, S3i and the University of Nebraska’s National Strategic Research Institute.
