#Squeed between 2 passenger in a plane full

'They also have to be close enough that there's a danger you could suffer from the transmission.'īarnett says he took all of these probabilities into account before determining an overall transmission risk. 'If there is such a person on your flight, assuming they are wearing a mask, it has to fail to prevent the transmission. There has to be a Covid-19 patient on board and they have to be contagious,' he says.

'But three things have to go wrong for you to get infected (on a flight). 'Most things are more dangerous now than they were before Covid, and aviation is no exception to that,' he tells CNN Travel. Those odds fall to 1 in 7,700 if the middle seat is vacant.

#Squeed between 2 passenger in a plane full

Low transmission riskĪccording to his findings, based on short haul flights in the US on aircraft configured with three seats on either side of the aisle, such as the Airbus 320 and the Boeing 737 - and assuming everyone is wearing a mask - the risk of catching the virus on a full flight is just 1 in 4,300. Meanwhile, various new protocols have been implemented, such as face-coverings for both passengers and crew, which is mandatory on most airlines, temperature screenings, as well as more intensive cabin cleaning and limited movement in the cabin during flight.Īrnold Barnett, a professor of statistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, tried to quantify the odds of becoming infected with the virus while on board a short flight in a recent study that looked at the benefits of the empty middle seat policy. One explanation for the apparently low risk level is that the air in modern aircraft cabins is replaced with new fresh air every two to three minutes, and most planes are fitted with air filters designed to trap 99.99% of particles.

However, all the other passengers tested negative, as did the crew members.Īnd while there have certainly been cases of infected passengers passing the virus on to an airplane's crew or fellow travelers in recent months, the transmission rates are low. In one case, about 328 passengers and crew members were tested for coronavirus after it was learned that a March 31 flight from the US to Taiwan had been carrying 12 passengers who were symptomatic at the time. If new scientific claims are borne out, the perceived heightened risk of boarding an airplane could be unfounded. (CNN) - Sitting squeezed between a number of strangers on board an aircraft might feel like a risky position during these uncertain times.īut according to some experts who point to the very few documented cases of in-flight transmission, the chances of catching Covid-19 while on board a flight are actually relatively slim.įear of flying during the pandemic has drastically reduced global air traffic, which has also been restricted due to border closures.