# Panic on 2nd AA Airlines Flight - Fainting Illness **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610 "2016-01-29T20:52:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/1 "2016-01-29T20:52:38Z")
American Airlines forced to ground a plane for the second time after members of the crew and passengers on board suffered from a mystery illness. > **[Mystery illness strikes SECOND American Airlines flight](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/panic-second-american-airlines-flight-7272258)** > > American Airlines forced to ground a plane for the second time after members of the crew and passengers on board suffered from a mystery illness This sounds very scary. Can you imagine being on an Inter-Continental flight when some of the crew and passengers start fainting? Do you think this is some random event? Or could it be some kind of deliberate attack? I hope this isn’t a duplicate thread. I searched several forums for “Illness” and “Airlines” before starting this thread but I found nothing. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/2 "2016-01-30T10:50:30Z")
Not a duplicate, but this isn’t the first time. I posted [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=690954) thread after observing the same thing on a flight a few years ago. The crew ended up getting several of us to help those who’d passed out. I got some pretty good answers, but I still wonder what happened that night. None of the theories seemed to really fit. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/3 "2016-01-30T10:54:55Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Or could it be some kind of deliberate attack? By what? Is there a chemical agent known to cause lightheadedness in ~2% of the people who inhale it and leave even them with no need for medical treatment? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/4 "2016-01-30T11:39:55Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > By what? Is there a chemical agent known to cause lightheadedness in ~2% of the people who inhale it and leave even them with no need for medical treatment? I have no idea. I’m not suggesting that I know how such an attack could be made. I was hoping that someone might have some ideas about that. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/5 "2016-01-30T15:24:31Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Do you think this is some random event? Or could it be some kind of deliberate attack? Very few details. Sounds like someone smelled something odd. One or more people felt “light-headed”. Others saw them and, concluding something was going on, began experiencing symptoms themselves. Two possibilities in my non-expert opinion: 1) there actually was some chemical toxin that made people sick. Or 2) the considerably more likely explanation of mass hysteria. > **[Mass psychogenic illness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness)** > > Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population where there is no infectious agent responsible for contagion. It is the rapid spread of illness signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group, originating from a nervous system disturbance involving excitation, loss, or alteration of function, whereby physical complaints that are exhibited unc MP... ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/6 "2016-01-30T16:28:40Z")
The OP’s link says, “(o)ne of the crew said something about oven cleaner reacting badly”. It also contains a link to a story about the earlier AA flight which experienced a similar episode. That story mentions the possibility of “a loss of equilibrium” related to a loss of air pressure in the cabin. Until more is known, with more certainty, I would say it sounds like two incidents unrelated, except for the fact that they occurred on the same airline. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/7 "2016-01-30T16:46:17Z")
I wonder if they had the fish? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/8 "2016-01-30T17:19:27Z")
Sounds like a [fume event](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fume_event). ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/9 "2016-01-30T18:02:28Z")
Note that the plane was flying from Brazil, so suspicion of the Zika (?) virus may be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/10 "2016-01-30T18:18:33Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Note that the plane was flying from Brazil, so suspicion of the Zika (?) virus may be an issue. I thought the Zika virus was only an issue for newborns. Can it affect adults too? If so, how does it harm adults? Can it cause this kind of fainting? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/11 "2016-01-30T18:48:39Z")
Zika virus typically produces flu-like symptoms of varying severity. The danger for babies comes if a pregnant woman comes down with the virus while she is pregnant, which apparently (notice that this connection has not yet been conclusively proven) can cause one or more kinds of birth defects. If the dizziness were associated with a virus like this, the people suffering from it would still feel sick after the dizziness passed, it wouldn’t be just a momentary phenomenon. **F.U. Shakespeare** seems to be the voice of reason in this thread. Oven cleaner fumes and temporary lack of oxygen are perfectly reasonable explanations for these occurrences. As for an attack, I can say that by offering that as an explanation, the terrorists have won. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/panic-on-2nd-aa-airlines-flight-fainting-illness/744610/12 "2016-01-30T18:52:30Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Or 2) the considerably more likely explanation of mass hysteria. > > [Mass psychogenic illness - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness) Were dogs and cats living together?