Airline Workers Warn of Dangerous Fumes Onboard

The smell of jet fuel is fairly common in the passenger cabin when your plane is preparing to taxi. Far less so is the aroma of dirty socks, rancid cheese, or a wet dog—the typical unpleasant notice that engine oil vapors have seeped in, too.

These smells are usually found in jet engine “bleed air,” which is outside air that’s been shunted from the engines into an air conditioning system and then to the cabin. In various systems—cabin pressurization, water-tank storage pressure, even heating to dissipate wing ice—this air is highly useful to the plane’s operation.