Boarding in groups Therefore boarding the plane can endanger your health

Air travel: Increased risk of infection through group boarding
Some air travel requests passengers to board the machine in different groups. This form of boarding increases the risk of infection according to a new study. Other methods are therefore associated with a lower health risk.

Health risks during air travel
Air travel poses a health risk for a variety of reasons. Not only because the risk of thrombosis is increased on the plane, but also because, according to studies, sometimes toxic air is in aircraft cabins that can cause illness. In addition, getting into the machine can pose a risk, because when boarding the risk of infecting with infectious diseases, especially large.

When traveling by air, passengers are often asked to enter the machine in groups from the back to the front. This form of boarding increases the risk of infection according to a new study. (Image: Michael Schütze / fotolia.com)

Increased risk of infection when boarding
Many air travel is now required to enter the plane in groups. Most passengers should first take their seats in the back rows, so that in the end, all move faster.

However, the time saved by this form of boarding is often hardly worth mentioning. In addition, the method apparently leads to a health risk.

As reported by US researchers, group boarding increases the risk of infection.

Other method would be cheaper
The researchers around Ashok Srinivasan from Florida State University showed by computer simulations that the block-boarding favors the spread of pathogens.

According to computer scientists' calculations, the risk of infection is greatest when passengers have to divide into three groups that enter the machine from the back to the front.

"If you have multiple zones, people in the same zone tend to be very close together, close enough to carry infections," Srinivasan said in a statement.

As the experts noted in their study, published in the journal "Physical Review", it would be better if the cab would be filled instead in the longitudinal direction, ie first to the right and then to the left.

Random is safer
Even better is the random principle, as the passengers "then less likely to spend a long time in the vicinity of others," said the study author.

"On the whole, random boarding takes longer, but if passengers could choose to sit between Ebola and a few minutes later, we suspect they would prefer the latter."

The study also showed that infections in smaller aircraft spread less frequently than in larger aircraft, as larger passenger groups increase the risk of contracting a communicable disease.

The background of the study was the Ebola epidemic, which was also spreading in 2014 due to travelers, and spread in West Africa. The deadly disease had not been ruled out in Germany at the time. (Ad)