QF Flight Engineers Dying?
Q: six years of brain tumours. Another unspecified amount have had cancerous tumours removed by the various medical means available. According to a QF Senior Technical Specialist in avionics, fears have been around for years regarding electric and magnetic fields around the FE panel in the 747 Classic (and indeed other 3-crew aircraft). Forward Facing flight crews are not experiencing the same rate of death due to brain cancers leading to circumstantial evidence suggesting that being a flight engineer can indeed be a health hazard. QF has recently advertised for nine more FEs, according to one FE flying with the airline. Comments?
A: -Given the relatively small fleet of 747 classics operated by Qantas, are there any similar rates of tumours with US airlines operating much larger fleets of the same aircraft? -Before you all go jumping to conlcusions there may be confounding variables. I don't think that anything can be drawn from these numbers, and yes I do know something about statistics. This thread has been done before, actually. Perhaps deja may bring it back?