Impact of sound and vibration on health, travel comfort and performance of flight attendants and pilots

Noise and vibration affect flight attendants and pilots at their workplace in cabin and cockpit, respectively, besides numerous other physical environmental parameters, e.g. air quality, draft, temperature distribution, humidity, glare. Additionally, the physiological setting and psychological attitude modulate the impact of environmental parameters. The relation between environmental parameters at the specific work place and the subjective and medical response and performance was investigated in the European project HEACE (www.heace.org). Investigations were conducted in simulators and mock-ups as well as in real long-haul flights. Environmental measurements were performed with the help of the project partners EADS-CRC, BRE, itap, GmbH and Paragon Ltd. Physiological and medical data were recorded by the Medical University Vienna. Questionnaires were designed with support of BRE. A comprehensive data analysis was performed with BRE, CIRA and University of Patras. The sound level is one important parameter besides air quality with negative impact on subjective feeling and significant bias on the crew's performance, in particular effective during long-haul flights. (c) 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.