During my recently airplane travels with SAS I’ve noticed smoke/spay/vapor pumping through the AC of the airplane once they sealed the cabin during the taxi.
It didn’t worry me, since the cabin crew was quite relaxed and it seemed normal to them.
The first time I thought maybe it’s the AC working hard, which seems unlikely (Ireland to Denmark) but then we boarded another 3 times after that and each time this happens.
Only similar thing I can think of was with Malaysian Airline, where the Stewardess used spray cans throughout the whole cabin to disinfect it before heading back to Europe.
Here’s an example
So my question is: What is the stuff? And Why?
I saw this once last year on a very hot and humid day. My guess was that the pressure changes had caused the moisture in the air to condense out. This would be the moist air that entered the cabin with the passengers and would not have gone through the air con units yet to remove said moisture.
It was quite a thick fog and almost looked like smoke coming from the vents. But the cabin crew didn’t seem alarmed so I didn’t worry too much. I fly 4-6 times a month and I’ve only seen this once.
It’s just water vapor. The cabin gets warm while the plane is sitting and then the AC comes on. You have its cold dry air hitting the warm wet air in the cabin, and the water condenses. That’s all it is.
I see this all the time.
It’s just condensation - the cold AC is condensing water vapor from the humid air.
Didn’t you see Fight Club? It is oxygen to keep the passengers calm.
Was afraid it might have been the Langoliers
It was my first time ever and then 4 times in a row within 2 weeks.
airliners (except for the Boeing 787) use “bleed” air for the cabin air conditioning. some air is taken from the compressor of the engine(s), then filtered and the temperature and humidity are adjusted. it’s possible the outside air was humid and since it comes out of the engine at a few hundred degrees it may have just condensed into visible vapor in the chiller. As long as it didn’t smell funky* there’s nothing to worry about.
- at least, no funkier than an airliner usually smells.
Back when I worked on automotive A/C systems, I occasionally “tuned” the system a bit too lean. This dropped the evaporator pressure enough to fog the outlet air. It was neat to watch the water vapor discharge from the dash outlets. It had to be very humid to do this. It would only last a short time as the system controls would cut the compressor.
Dennis
Thank you for your replies and answers.
I was just curious if it may had some fumigation purpose, since I never seen it before and then 4 times in a row.
I had an air conditioner in my car fail…
Now just before it failed totally, I recall driving along and I drove through the swamps area being the flood plain of a river… So it seems that the air conditioner wasn’t cold enough to cause condensation inside the air conditioner, but it was cool enough that it cooled the inside of the car … just enough to create my own little cloud or fog… inside my car.
Ordinarily the air conditioner is cold enough to drop the water molecules from the air out the drain hole as water. But with it only running slightly cool , it slightly cooled the air in the car… 100% relative humidy and a small bit of cooling… leads to fog. It might have been foggy in the morning, but its rather dramatic to have it inside the car.
Or it could be a leak from the chemtrail tanks.
Yeah, those are really dangerous and really a signal to the aliens!