Why you shouldn’t worry if the plane cabin fills with fog
A savvy traveller has shared why plane cabins can fill with fog, and why you need not to worry about it.
Passenger Savannah Gowarty posted a video of the suspiciously looking inflight mist and condensation on a domestic US flight, with the video garnered over 13.1 million views, and amazing and confusing commentators questioning what was going on.
In response to the viral video, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson told CNN Travel what it means.
The short answer: it's a natural occurrence that usually only lasts a short while, and it's nothing to worry about.
"On hot and relatively humid days, cold air from the aircraft's air conditioning system mixes with the warmer, humid cabin air and lowers it to the dew point, creating fog," the spokesperson said.
"The fog is generally short-lived as the cooled air quickly warms above the dew point."
When an airplane is waiting on the ground pre-departure, the aircraft cabin air is kept cool "either from an external ground air conditioning unit or the aircraft's own Auxiliary Power Unit (APU)," as the FAA spokesperson explains.
"Both provide cold air (usually much cooler than the ambient temperature) which can temporarily lower the dew point of the aircraft cabin air enough to create fog."
Climate scientist Indrani Roy emphasised that neither mist nor any resulting condensation is "cause for alarm."
The FAA spokesperson went on to explain that "aircraft cabin fog usually dissipates very quickly."
"This is due to the colder air (which lowered the cabin air temperature to its dew point) quickly warms back above the dew point. Once that happens, the fog will disappear.”
“Many times, the fog only appears as it comes out of the vent, exists for 1-2 seconds and then is gone."
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