UPS to install full facemasks in all aircraft

UPS has agreed to fit full-face oxygen masks in the cockpits of its air fleet, following recommendations from a safety task force. The safety equipment will be installed on the carrier’s Boeing 747-400, MD-11, B-767 and B-757 aircraft over the next two years, starting with the MD-11 and 747s.

UPS Airbus A-300 aircraft already come equipped with integrated oxygen masks.

The equipment to be retrofitted to cockpits will be provided by French conglomerate Zodiac Aerospace, which already supplies oxygen equipment to carriers including UPS.

The one-piece facemasks can be put on with one hand in just three seconds – five times faster than the separate oxygen mask and smoke goggle units currently on most UPS aircraft.

The masks are a better fit for crew wearing glasses, and meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) performance standards.

“Safety is an absolute priority for our employees, our customers’ shipments and our aircraft,” said UPS Airlines President Mitch Nichols. “That is why we continue to adopt solutions like these facemasks to further augment the safe operation of our airline.”

Task force

UPS agreed to the facemask upgrades following recommendations of the safety task force jointly set up last November with the Independent Pilots Association, the collective bargaining unit of the 2,800 UPS pilots.

The six-member task force has been particularly focused on implementing measures for detecting and coping with in-flight fires in the flight deck, cargo compartments and within boxes being shipped within aircraft.

Their formation came just a few months after a UPS crashed in Dubai following an in-flight fire, which has been variously blamed on terrorist group Al Qaida and lithium batteries being shipped in the cargo hold. The incident was the first fatal crash for a UPS jet, although another jet was destroyed by fire after landing in Philadelphia in 2006.

The joint IPA-UPS task force is now working with the FAA, aircraft manufacturers, safety vendors and other industry experts on safety improvements.

The facemasks are the second recommendation of the task force, following on from the UPS agreement to fit equipment allowing pilots to see during a fire situation.

IPA and safety task force member Capt. Bob Brown said: “These facemasks will be an important inclusion in our cockpit safety environment. Between the facemasks and the recent addition of the Emergency Vision Assurance System (EVAS), the union and the company are very much in sync on flight safety.”