Is it possible that something smoldering or arcing in the electrical system created the CO? I could imagine something smoldering at a fairly low temperature, possibly not even tripping the circuit breaker or smoking, but still causing enough of a chemical reaction to emit an appreciable amount of CO. Combine that with the human physiology at a cabin altitude of a couple thousand feet and I can see how its possible to end up with some fairly serious impairment.

Anyone know if the level of impairment decreased after donning the O2 masks or were they not on it long enough to have much of an effect?

 

As someone else said - great job realizing that something wasn't right and getting the plane safely on the ground.

 

Yes, something would have had to burn to produce CO. I can think of a few remote possibilities...

Oil leak in a compressor bearing ahead of the 10th stage might get heated enough by compression to burn and create CO...but you'd think it would also make smoke and bad smells.

Another possibility would be an oil leak in the left pack at a point where it could come in contact with hot bleed air. Since it seemed to affect the cockpit only that would mean it would have to come from the left bleed or pack. But again, no smoke?

They were on climb out, so engine power (and bleed temps) would be high.

I would rule out something in the cargo compartment since it only seemed to affect the cockpit.

Actually this is really weird...I can't imagine how there would be any trace of CO left by the time they shut down th engines, opened the doors, unloaded, and got somebody out there with a gas analyzer. The cockpit fans should have flushed it all out. I almost suspect that the CO was from a nearby operating GPU?

Maybe they were poisoned by burning oil additives, not CO.

 

I was wondering all of these above points.

The article did mention a small amount of CO, so maybe it was something from the ground after they opened the door. Maybe there was a pressure issue of sorts, but again it seems like the rest of the cabin was unaffected so it's tough to say. This is a really odd situation.

Maybe they have an aftermarket heater in the nose and that was leaking CO

 

Now that you mention it, I believe the CRJ's have a galley heater (keeps the FA's somewhat warm during boarding with the door open) that is like a small electric heater and fan. (or it is, I don't know much about it, I just know it is there).

That could be a source of something burning. Either dust or something gets in there or it overheats and the breaker doesn't trip. I remember being told that they used to have an issue with the intake of the heater getting blocked by the galley restocking form in between turns because fa's would use a clip on an adjacent cabinet and the paper would get flipped up by a breeze and block the heater intake causing it to overheat.

Either way I would guess you would have some kind of burning smell in this instance.

 

The electric burner wouldn't produce any CO, it would have to ignite something else in large quantities...dust bunnys wouldn't be enough. Also any accidental combustion would produce a lot of smoke. Only finely tuned devices like engines burning specific fuels can avoid generating smoke.

 

Good job crew!
I cannot wait the see what the FAA decides to do about this...probably a new AD that will require the crew to have one pilot on O2 for all flights (in addition to speed limitations for the flaps below 200 kts, flaps 45 diversion fuel, setting 10 degrees of pitch on T/O, etc.)

 

would excessive use of Ipods produce CO?

 

and pop open a window

 

CO binds to hemoglobin better than O2. Straight O2 would reduce hypoxia, but eliminating CO takes a while.