A pilot has issued a health warning for passengers who fly with a cold.
And it’s not just because they could spread germs to their fellow travellers.
Captain Jaimes García (@captainjaimesgarcia), a pilot at Colombian airline Avianca, explains in a video shared on TikTok that cold sufferers are at risk of rupturing their eardrums.
This is because a cold can exacerbate ear barotrauma – or ‘airplane ear’ – which is often brought on by a plane ascending or descending and air pressure between the middle ear and the environment changing.
As the Express reports, Captain García describes ear barotrauma as ‘very serious’ and reveals why cold sufferers are more at risk.
He tells his 150,000 TikTok followers: ‘If I have a cold, those Eustachian tubes [tubes within the ear that connect the middle ear to the throat] become inflamed. They can’t equalise those pressures and that’s when you feel ear pain.
‘If it’s very severe and you’re very congested, your eardrum could even rupture. It’s very serious.’
Though a worry for passengers, given their longer flying hours, pilots face even greater risk.
Captain Garcia says: ‘A passenger flying with congestion might experience significant discomfort, but we pilots who make up to five or six trips daily face greater risk if we’re not in optimal condition.’
According to Heathline, ‘frequent cases’ can cause ‘further complications’ such as nosebleeds and moderate to severe hearing loss.
A pilot has issued a health warning for passengers who fly with a cold. Captain Jaimes García, a pilot at Colombian airline Avianca, explains in a video shared on TikTok that cold sufferers are at risk of rupturing their eardrums (file image)
And echoing Captain Garcia, Healthline underscores that ‘people who have allergies, colds or active infections may be more likely to experience ear barotrauma’.
Most cases of barotrauma ‘heal without medical intervention’, explains Healthline, with the site advising flyers relieve the effects of air pressure changes by yawning, chewing gum, practicing breathing exercises and taking decongestants.
However, in more severe cases a doctor may be required to prescribe a steroid or antibiotic, while a ruptured eardrum may require surgery.
The NHS Fit for Travel website outlines other health problems flying can cause.
One is dehydration, as the ‘circulating air inside aircraft cabins is very dry and can affect your skin, lips, nose and eyes’.
It recommends using skin moisturisers and lip balms as well as drinking lots of clear liquids during your flight.
A cold can exacerbate ear barotrauma – or ‘airplane ear’
The ‘cramped conditions’ and ‘long periods of being less active on a flight’ can also increase your risk of ‘developing a blood clot’, a condition known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), warns the NHS.
DVTs most often form in the legs and can be ‘potentially life-threatening’ if ‘part of the clot breaks off and travels to the lungs’, causing a pulmonary embolism.
Passengers should try to move around as much as possible and carry out calf muscle exercises to lower their risk.
Travellers could also suffer from motion sickness if there is ‘severe turbulence’ during their flight or jet lag from travelling across multiple timezones, warns the NHS.
