But Mulder, Cannon and other campaigners believe it is responsible for long-term sickness, and even death, in a disproportionate number of people who work as cabin crew and pilots. It is a controversial diagnosis, and many in the aviation industry are adamant it doesn’t exist. “We didn’t know if there would be an answer, but because of the information we had from ex-crew members who were ill, we were confident Matt’s symptoms were the same.” Desperate, they spent around £5,000 on tests the results showed that Matt had high levels of organophosphate poisoning, one of the many effects of exposure to toxic cabin air, otherwise known as aerotoxic syndrome.Īerotoxic syndrome is a little-known term used to describe the symptoms of exposure to contaminated air. Dr Michel Mulder, a former pilot and consultant in aviation medicine, and Frank Cannon, an aviation lawyer, suggested the couple arrange a specialist secondary postmortem to look for specific toxins in Matt’s body. “At first we felt numb and kept asking why? We just wanted to find out what had happened.” Then two aviation experts got in touch with Charlie and Fiona. “The coroner’s office couldn’t tell us why Matt had died,” Charlie says.
The initial postmortem did not reveal a reason for the sudden death. They wrote back and told him to apply when he was 18.” He smiles. When he was just eight years old, he wrote to British Airways to ask about becoming a pilot. “Matt wanted to fly for as long as Fiona, my wife, and I can remember. When I meet Charlie Bass in a hotel lobby in Colnbrook, a small village at the end of Heathrow’s westerly operating runway, he is warm but his anger is still clear.
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