A Serious Case of Hypoxia
 

http://tinyurl.com/b5txlx

Kalitta Charters enroute to YIP on the Learjet. Amazing that they actually made it out of this situation.

Cleveland Plain Dealer, 3/05/09
Oberlin- The pilot's speech was slow and slurred. He couldn't control his Kalitta Learjet, and two Oberlin air traffic controllers knew he was in trouble.
The controllers, Stephanie Bevins and Jay McCombs, recognized the pilot was suffering from hypoxia - a condition caused by oxygen deprivation that has led to four fatal airplane crashes since 2004, U.S. aviation officials said.

Bevins and McCombs instructed the pilot to fly the cargo jet to a lower altitude, where he got enough air and quickly recovered. They were honored this week with the controllers association Archie League Medal of Safety Award for their work on the evening of July 26.
Bevins, 34, lives in Avon and has been a controller at Oberlin since 1998.
McCombs, from Amherst, has worked at the Oberlin Center since 1987. He has been a controller since 1982, when he was in the Air Force. In 1983, he won the Air Force Controller of the Year award.

"Over the radio, Jay McCombs tried hard to understand the slow, slurring words muffled among the blaring sirens sounding in the background," said Alex Caldwell, spokeswoman for the national air traffic controllers association. "The radio was poor and the pilot difficult to understand, leaving only unintelligible transmission and uncontrollable noise to be heard."

Bevins was first to recognize the symptoms of hypoxia, the condition that caused another Learjet to crash on Oct. 25, 1999, near Aberdeen, S.D., killing two pilots and four passengers, including golfer and U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart.
The pilot in the July incident, which occurred between 32,000 and 36,000 feet over Ypsilanti, Mich., seemed to be fighting to remain conscious.

His co-pilot was waving and moving his arm violently and uncontrollably as he also fought for oxygen.
McCombs knew the pilot was incapable of rational discussion, so he sharply ordered him to descend to 11,000 feet.
It worked.
"McCombs began bringing the aircraft to the lowest altitude available to help alleviate the oxygen problem," Caldwell said. "Unable to answer questions, the pilot was only able to respond to direct command."
McCombs said that at 11,000 feet, the pilot returned to normal and confirmed that he had been suffering from hypoxia.

The fact that the captain did not turn on the autopilot probably saved his life, Caldwell said. If the autopilot had engaged, it would have stayed at the deadly altitude until the plane ran out of gas and crashed.
Looking back, she said the impact of what happened didn't hit her until later.
"At the time, we just looked at the situation and figured out how to resolve it," she said. "Our biggest concern once he started descending was that he would not stop. He did and you can hear the difference in his voice. It was only later that we realized how scary it all was."
To hear the transmissions between the pilot and the controllers, visit http://tinyurl.com/b5txlx

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
[email protected], 216-999-4890

Hypoxia is one of the scariest things that we have going on in our community right now. I've lost two friends to hypoxia myself. Do the Lears not have some type of emergency O2 onboard?

USMCFLYR

What was that claxon waring? Overspeed?

They have O2 masks aboard. I wonder if this was a fast or slow depressurization?

That is what I figured. Our first EP for Hypoxia is Emergency Oxygen Green Ring (our supplemental oxygen) - PULL. We use to train in the old altitude chamber (think Officer and a Gentleman), but now they have this awesome new training device called the Reduced Oxygen Training Device (ROBD). We can sit in front of a computer console and "fly" the sim and they can take you right up to 40,000' if they want and with no side effects or regular dangers from the chamber.

USMCFLYR

Lear Oxygen Sytems and Pressurization
 

I had a 8-10,000 fpm cabin climb in the Lear 35 one evening while at FL30-something. The Altitude claxon isn't all that different from the gear or overspeed (been 2 years since I've flown it, so I've forgotten a little).

The Capt started messing with the cabin pressurization switches while I yelled "Get your mask on!!" The stock masks in the Lear are crap...VERY uncomfortable, very flimsy, and difficult to don correctly/quickly. I should point out he was a civilian background, and had never been in an altitude chamber.

I got my mask on and put the controller in Manual and managed to catch it before it went above 25,000 cabin altitude.

The cabin outflow valve in the Lear family is a piece of plastic, and can fail quickly to leave a 3-inch hole in the cabin and outside air. You could lose all pressurization in as little as 3 seconds, by my estimate, at FL410.

And my point about the Capt above was many civilians have no idea how quickly you can become incapacitated in the rarified air above FL250, particularly in the 30s and higher, because they've never been exposed to it in the altitude chamber. Time of useful conciousness at FL410 is about 10 seconds without the mask.

I've said this before on a different post: wear your mask as required by the regs, and if you can get a chance to use the FAA's free program to ride in a military chamber, do it. Call the FAA at Oklahoma City and ask about the program, and they will set you up with the closest military installation.

Those guys are so lucky! That is definately a scary example of how bad it gets. At the end, didn't that sound like a different voice like the FO finally came on the radio? The capt voice did come back at the end and it did sound better though.

I've done the program, and agree it's an eye opening experience. Very worth doing.

Are you serious? Have you ever seen a outflow valve from a lear? They are most definitely not a weak point and they are not made out of plastic. It's always amazing the general lack of system knowledge some pilots have.

This incident was the result of a slow loss of cabin pressure and that's all I can say.

The claxon you hear is a cabin altitude warning not overspeed. You can notice in the tape that he is able to silence the horn. You can not silence the overspeed and the two have different sounds.

Pilot Declares Emergency - Extreme Hypoxia
 

If you haven't already seen/heard this, its worth your 4 minutes. It may save your life (or someone else's) one day:

Pilot Declares Emergency Because Of Extreme Hypoxia - YouTube

I've been notified by e-mail of a fantastic training opportunity for pilots in the DFW area.

While attending Parks College of Saint Louis University, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to experience the high altitude chamber in OKC. It's an experience I hope I never forget. I still remember doing simple math problems and mazes while off O2, and thinking I was doing a great job. The the mask came back on, & I saw nothing but scribbles on my paper. If anyone ever gets the chance to experience a high altitude chamber, DO IT!!!!

I see that I have repeated myself numerous times in similar threads; but be aware that this training event is even BETTER than the Altitude Chambers!

How long does the average person have at FL250 before serious hypoxia sets in? If you use a supplementary 02 systems it can be hard to know what you are getting through the pipe/cannula. No low pressure warnings, it just runs out at some point.

The FAA and Air Force had a program a while back where civilian pilots could get trained in the AF's pressure chambers. There was one at KADW if I remember. Is that program still running?

Many, many thanks for this heads up, sir! I would've have missed this if not for you and your thoughtful post. I just finished registering a friend of mine and I for the Saturday class, and we're looking forward to it. Thanks again.

Glad to have helped!
I hope you will report back after the class and give us a recent update to the training and if you felt it worthwhile.
The safety side of me feels that this type of training and upset/unusual attitude training are very useful, but at the same time I think I might bring some bias considering both hypoxia and OCF were major contributors to mishaps in my past flying experience.
I'd like to know if others find it as useful coming from civilian flying backgrounds.

Cub:

In the USAF chamber, you go masks-off at 25,000 until "you notice your personal hypoxia symptoms."

You are given some menial mental tasks, such as a puzzle, or a quiz with math problems.

Most people get noticeably stupid within 3-4 minutes. However, not everyone will put their masks back on. I didn't, the first time I was there.

I now know that in my symptoms, my face gets flushed and warm....just like when I drink (but I'm a happy drunk).

Useful consciousness at 30k is about one minute. At 40k, it is about 15 seconds.

I surely will and also send you a PM when I do. Where should I post the gouge? Here, or...??

Post it from the chamber > 25K. It's got wifi, right?

gotta admit, I'm a bit jealous. Have to look to see if Shaw,McIntyre (sp), CHS, or Beaufort has something like this.

Time of useful consciousness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

then there's Armstong's line at ~62K

Thanks UAL- I am surprised they use an altitude as low as 25k as a test or teaching altitude, I guess it shows that you might be functional for a little while at that altitude if not for very long.

You can post in this thread or start a new one if you feel it will get more attention. I decided to just revive an older thread to announce the class. There are already about a half a dozen Hypoxia related threads.

Cub:

Apparently, one of the reasons for 25k is the slower onset allows (in theory) one to learn to recognize their own symptoms.

The other reason: as a new USAF student (30 years ago, next month!), we did a rapid-decompression ascent to 35k, if I remember right. But they stopped the 35k profile a few years later. A student either got hurt, or died from some reason....LOC, evolved gas; I never got the full story.

Yeah, DCS and embolism become serious risks with more change in pressure, and a faster rate of change only makes it worse.

To avoid those issues, military jumpers pre-breath O2 well in advance of de-pressurizing...going straight to 35K on air would be a risk I wouldn't care to take just for some training value. Your joints might remind you for the rest of your life...

If they were in a Lear 35, which I don't think they were, it was probably a 25, the pressurization system is pretty crude compared to the 35. There were several warnings that would have to fail for that to happen.

I'll take this opportunity to once again BUMP the program called 'Portable Reduced Oxygen Training Enclosure (PROTE)'.

It seems to take a long time to get the word out as I mentioned in this thread back in 2009 with my own previous experiences with the ROBD, but it was brought to my attention again in last month's copy of the 'FAA Safety' magazine. The article gives contact information for requesting the PORTE make an appearance at your location. Contact Rogers V. Shaw at 405-954-4837

In the same article, the Night IMaging Training Environment (NITE) Lab is mentioned. For those in the military - this seems to be the standard NVG Lab that we all had to attend on a periodic basis. POC for scheduling is J.R. Brown at 405-954-4837.