title: Flying After Conducting an Aircraft Excessive Cabin Leakage Test.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aviation medical specialists should be aware that commercial airline aircraft engineers may undertake a 'dive equivalent' operation while conducting maintenance activities on the ground. We present a worked example of an occupational risk assessment to determine a minimum safe preflight surface interval (PFSI) for an engineer before flying home to base after conducting an Excessive Cabin Leakage Test (ECLT) on an unserviceable aircraft overseas.
  
  
  METHODS
  We use published dive tables to determine the minimum safe PFSI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The estimated maximum depth acquired during the procedure varies between 10 and 20 fsw and the typical estimated bottom time varies between 26 and 53 min for the aircraft types operated by the airline. Published dive tables suggest that no minimum PFSI is required for such a dive profile.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Diving tables suggest that no minimum PFSI is required for the typical ECLT dive profile within the airline; however, having conducted a risk assessment, which considered peak altitude exposure during commercial flight, the worst-case scenario test dive profile, the variability of interindividual inert gas retention, and our existing policy among other occupational groups within the airline, we advised that, in the absence of a bespoke assessment of the particular circumstances on the day, the minimum PFSI after conducting ECLT should be 24 h. Houston S, Wilkinson E. Flying after conducting an aircraft excessive cabin leakage test. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2016; 87(9):816-820.
authors.affiliation: British Airways Health Services, Waterside, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Houston
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
mesh_terms: D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000401:Aircraft; D001359:Aviation; D001469:Barotrauma; D058868:Compressed Air; D003664:Decompression; D003665:Decompression Sickness; D004242:Diving; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D000070356:Pilots; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013997:Time Factors