Five US Air crew fall ill from mystery disease on Boston flight*

Mon Nov 5, 2007 3:48pm EST

BOSTON (Reuters) - Five crew members including two pilots on a US
Airways flight from Washington to Boston fell ill on Monday after
reporting an odor and were treated by paramedics when they landed,
aviation officials said.

The crew and 81 passengers on Flight 2022, Airbus A319 shuttle service,
left Washington's Reagan National airport at 7:30 a.m. EST. The crew
then reported a sulfur-type odor in the cockpit, the Federal Aviation
Administration said.

The plane returned to Washington where they switched to another Airbus
jetliner and proceeded to Boston.

A spokesman for Boston's Logan airport said the smell on the first
airplane was possibly smoke or rubber, but the airline said it had not
yet confirmed the origin of the problem.

The FAA said the crew did not report any problems to air traffic
controllers during the flight but complained of feeling sick when they
arrived at Logan at 10:20 a.m. The FAA is investigating whether the
sickness was caused by the odor on the first plane.

The nature of their illness was not disclosed. The crew was treated on
board by paramedics and then taken to a hospital.

No passengers were sick, officials said.

Authorities were investigating the matter, but a US Airways spokeswoman
said there was no indication of foul play.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle, Toni Clarke and Muralikumar Anantharaman in
Boston, Kyle Peterson in Chicago and John Crawley in Washington; Editing
by Cynthia Osterman)