KOREAN Air is reassuring passengers that they are safe from contracting MERS while on a flight by debunking misconceptions about cabin air circulation.
“Unlike tuberculosis, the possibility of airborne transmission with MERS is very small. So far, there have been no virus transmission cases that happened within the air cabin,” the South Korean flag carrier said in a press release.
“However, some passengers have misunderstandings about the cabin’s enclosed space, and believe it will increase the likelihood of being infected with MERS.”
According to industry experts as quoted by Korean Air, it is impossible for the virus to spread through the air in the aircraft; any particle that enters the plane’s air circulation system is completely filtered and sterilised.
Air outside the aircraft is compressed by the engines and heated to 200°C to be completely sterilised. The compressed air then passes through an ozone purifier and is cooled down. It is then mixed and discharged into the cabin together with air filtered by a high efficiency particulate air filter.
During the flight, air in the plane is completely refreshed every two to three minutes. As cabin air moves vertically instead of horizontally, it flows from the passenger’s head to toe, preventing the spread of the virus.
To safeguard passengers from MERS, every flight that flies from the Middle East to South Korea is sterilised daily. Planes are now disinfected weekly instead of monthly, while the number of sterilised planes has risen from five to 20 per day.
Korean Air uses disinfectant MD-125, which can effectively kill the coronavirus that causes MERS for a week.
As of press time, there are 179 confirmed cases of MERS in South Korea, where the virus has claimed 27 lives. About 3,100 people are still under quarantine at state facilities or at home.
The outbreak – the largest outside Saudi Arabia – has sparked alarm across Asia and a flurry of flight cancellations to the country.
