Thursday, 8 July 2010

Why I'll probably never fly again

Flight BA 0015 and why I'll probably never fly again!
On May 03 2010 I set out on a trip from the UK to the Far East. The round trip to Singapore, Brisbane, Cairns, back to Brisbane, Auckland NZ, Melbourne, Perth AUS, Tokyo, UK involved flying on a variety of Boeing 7 series jet aircraft.
Total flying time for the 9 flights and 18 takes-off and landings was 58 hours, with the shortest flight 2 hours and the longest 13 hours. The flights were all economy class, with the usual cramped seating in the rear. The final flight was May 22. None of the flights were ‘enjoyable’, but the very first, Heathrow to Singapore was absolutely horrendous. It was in a 777 BA/QANTAS flight BA15.
It was excessively noisy all of the flight, affected by turbulence 50% of the time, and did the worst landing I can ever remember in 60 years of flying in commercial aircraft. On disembarking, and for the rest of the trip I was partially deaf in my left ear and profoundly deaf in the right. I had experienced excruciating pain in both ears during the approach and landing, worse than I had ever experienced before. I had problems with my sight during the rest of the trip, which I dismissed at the time as jet-lag.
On returning to the UK I booked an appointment with my optician because I had detected a great difference in the vision in my right eye, compared to before the trip. The brightness of the image was a lot less than with my left eye and the edges of objects were distorted. This situation was definitely new since the trip. I constantly monitor my sight and hearing, when instructing on health and safety and I know that the only difference between my eyesight before the trip, was the perspective of the individual eyes. My left is dominant and the right sub-dominant.
On June 9 my optician confirmed that irregularities were present, took a retina image and referred me to the Stoke Mandeville Eye Unit for further investigation. On June 15 I had an angiogram/scan which confirmed what the optician had found. An eye specialist/consultant then prescribed Acular(ketorolac trometamol) and Maxidex(dexamethasone) but there was no mention of a detached retina - although ‘peeling’ was mentioned. I was instructed to add drops to my eyes and return on September 7, 2010 for further investigation.
On July 4 2010, I had to discontinue the drops whilst I get my ears sorted - yup my right ear-drum has been perforated! And it seems likely I have a problem with my Eustachian tubes.
I am personally 100% sure, although not able to prove at this time that the damage to my eyes and ears was caused by flight BA15, maybe in conjunction with a dodgy pair of Eustachian tubes, and the cabin pressurization system of that Boeing.