[MIL.com] The head of U.S. Transportation Command offered a sneak preview Wednesday of the results of a Defense Department test of particulate spread on commercial aircraft -- and they are surprising.Speaking at the National Defense Transportation Association's annual fall meeting, Gen. Stephen Lyons cited an aerosol test held Aug. 24-31 aboard two large passenger aircraft: the Boeing 767-300 and 777-200. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, teamed up with biodefense company Zeteo Tech Inc. to evaluate in-flight spread of airborne particles. Industry partners included Boeing and United Airlines.
Senior Master Sergeant, would you please investigate than incessant ringing? It could be someone trying to phone me from the club with my Tee Time.
"[The test] was an initiative initiated by TRANSCOM and supported by the Air Force and the test community to determine whether it's safe to fly on commercial airliners," Lyons said Wednesday. "And I have to tell you, their results, as were the results when we looked at this from the COVID patient movement challenge, are very, very encouraging."
There are some qualifiers, Lyons noted. The conditions that yielded positive results, he said, involved aircraft with HEPA filtration and "a very, very high air exchange rate of every two to five minutes or two to three minutes."
But under those conditions, he indicated, particle spread rates were even lower than in a conventional indoor setting.
"In fact, I would tell you that in my observations, and I've flown commercially since the pandemic started, being on a commercial airplane with HEPA filtration is probably one of the safest places that you can be," Lyons said. "And those test reports will be out very, very soon."
According to a September Defense Department test, TRANSCOM undertook this research in order to determine the safety of DoD-contracted Patriot Express, or commercial charter flights, used to transport military family members and others on official duty. The tests were conducted on a 767 and 777, officials said, because those are the aircraft most typically used for these flights.