Being a Ramp Agent. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Real World Aviation
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Hell IFC,
Today I’m going to be presenting a real life scenario on what happened today’s flight. I would like to put a disclaimer that I LOVE my job and wouldn’t want to do anything else! This is just for anyone who is thinking about being a ramp agent!

Today was the day that we had one of our 2 weekly LAX flights. Today’s flight was operated by N319NV a 15 year old Airbus A-319. The aircraft was having a routine flight but when the aircraft was about 45 minutes from landing the crew including pilots along with 4 passengers all started to feel sick. This was a concern as we currently didn’t have a GM for the past month and have never experienced this before. So as the airplane was making its descent into LIT, the airport staged EMS with 4 ambulances, the Police Department, and airport ops and also the airport fire department. The aircraft touched down safely and made its way to the Gate where it was meant by the fire fighters and paramedics.
According to the crew, they had tightness in there chests and the cabin had fumes in it. All passengers and crew were evaluated and released. With that being said, the airplane was than fueled and ferried back to LAX and a replacement aircraft was flown in from Whicitia, Kansas with passengers on board to take them back to LAX.
Overall it was a fun and exciting and something I’ve never got to be a part of! I definitely learned a lot about what to do in pressure situations and everyone from airport ops to the first responders played an important role.
As always comments and questions welcomed!

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Sounds interesting, I’m hoping everyone is okay!

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It was for sure! Everyone was fine! All checked out and cleared by medics

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That’s crazy! What fumes were in the cabin?

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Seems to be a common occurrence, particularly on the A320. Check out av herald.

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Very interesting , doesn’t sound good😂

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Unknown never was told that

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I will for sure.

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Yeah it wasn’t. We thought it was something lot worse

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Atleast everyone is ok

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It’s not good, I believe its mostly due to certain engine types where in fumes escape into the cabin. It’s a widely known. More needs to be done by Airbus and their partners as this happens far too often and it can have a lasting impact long term on the passengers and crew or even prove fatal.

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Have there been cases where it’s been fatal?

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Seems odd to me that it was a coincidence that the crew, pilots, and a couple passengers were experiencing all alike symptoms and there was literally fumes in the cockpit but everything was alright and they were released… idk, cool story, glad everyone is okay!

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Fumes in the cabin, not cockpit. Pilots just had chest tightness for some reason

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That’s something I didn’t know. That does sound plausible though

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Not that I know if. This is the first time I’m hearing this

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I apologize, I got the wrong impression. You might want to rephrase that sentence so it doesn’t sound like the pilots were sick if they weren’t ;)

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They were sick. The got checked out by the paramedics

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Don’t think so but pilots incapacitated isn’t good at all. BA have had quite a few of these cases, it seems they could just be reporting them more often than other carriers.

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Was it by chance Alligiant? If it was, I think I saw the replacement plane on FR24 fly out from Wichita (Winter the dolphin livery)