Stale Cockpit Air May Be Dulling Your Airline Pilot’s Performance

  • New Harvard study finds pilots fail more tests with higher CO2
  • Carbon dioxide levels once thought safe are raising concern
Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg
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That poorly ventilated conference room isn’t the only place with the potential for sick-air syndrome.

Airliner cockpits can also have levels of carbon dioxide elevated enough that in simulations it causes pilots to fail test maneuvers at higher rates than normal, a new Harvard University study has found.