Since 2009, the U.S. Navy has noticed a rise in the number of its aviators flying the F/A-18 and EA-18 getting air sick and has formed a Physiological Episode Team to investigate these physiological episodes.
By Staff Sgt. Brendan Stephens [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, Rep. Michael Turner, said at a hearing that determining the root cause is complex as the symptoms were related to depressurization, tissue hypoxia and contaminant intoxication overlap.
Statistics given showed that the rate of episodes per 100,000 flight hours on the F/A-18 went from 3.66 in 2006 to 28.23 from Nov. 1, 2014, to Oct. 31, 2015.
The team looked at 273 cases so far and, 93 involved some form of contamination, 90 involved an environmental control systems (ECS) component failure, 67 involved human factors, 41 involved an on-board oxygen generating system (OBOGS) component failure, 11 involved a breathing gas delivery component failure, and 45 were inconclusive or involved another system failure.
Is this the next event in another OBOGS story??
I hope not, for the sake of the aircrews!