COVID-19 Cleaning & Disinfecting Protocols For Aircraft - by Chris Meyer

Tim Jarvis timothy.jarvis@state.mn.us 651-357-0591 Kyle Sullivan kyle.sullivan@state.mn.us 612-297-2739 Mina Carlson mina.carlson@state.mn.us 651-279-4453

We all fly safe together. We are One Minnesota.

COVID-19 Cleaning & Disinfecting Protocols For Aircraft

by Chris Meyer

To say COVID-19 has changed our way of life is an understatement. Wearing face masks has become the new standard, families with children are adjusting to altered methods of schooling, and businesses are having to create new practices to keep customers safe. Chris Meyer

One specific area COVID-19 has had an effect on is how operators clean and disinfect aircraft before and after flight operations. As a pilot and/or aircraft owner, have you done anything differently?

When cleaning and disinfecting aircraft, it’s important to follow any and all guidance published by the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) for your aircraft and equipment. Failure to do so can have damaging effects.

For example, a recent article published by the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA) illustrated how using certain distilleryproduced alcohol products destroyed the instrument panels of two Cessna 172s belonging to a Florida flight school. Both direct equipment. Every aircraft is different, and anyone cleaning and application and overspray of the product, coupled with the hot disinfecting should follow the specific guidance prescribed by the Florida sun, caused significant discoloration of the instrument panel manufacturers. and rendered many of the aircraft’s required placards unreadable. In all applications, do not spray any solutions directly onto

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention your furnishings or equipment. Instead, spray cleaning solutions provides guidance on addressing surfaces that may have come into directly into your cloth and then make the application. Also, be contact with the Coronavirus. Proper procedures involve not only wary of products containing ammonia, bleach, citric acid, or sodium disinfecting, but cleaning the surface before disinfectant is even bicarbonate, as their use can damage aircraft equipment. applied. In other words, it’s actually a two-step process. The CDC If alcohol is an approved disinfectant for your aircraft, it’s and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are also working important to distinguish the use of isopropyl alcohol and not ethyl together to provide a list of products that are effective in killing the alcohol, which was used on the damaged Cessna 172s. The beauty SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for causing COVID-19 (visit www. is isopropyl alcohol (also referred to as isopropanol) is also listed as epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars- an official EPA classified COVID-19 disinfectant. In fact, many cov-2-covid-19). types of isopropyl alcohol-based products are included in the list.

The challenge is finding products that satisfy CDC/EPA However, use caution in that many of these products also contain guidelines, while simultaneously maintaining compatibility with the quaternary ammonium. With repeated use, quaternary ammonium recommendations provided by the OEMs for your equipment. can accelerate corrosion to metallic components.

MnDOT Aeronautics follows the guidance prescribed by the Read all product labels to gain a clear understanding of the OEM for its aircraft. The manufacturer recommends specific ingredients before making application to your aircraft. Remember, products, and explicitly states that those “products did not adversely always follow the specific guidance published by the OEMs for your affect samples of hard surfaces, interior leather, or windows.” specific equipment! However, if the recommended products are not readily available, One last risk to be mindful of: the threat of inadvertently additional guidance is broken out by type of surface. bumping a switch during cleaning and disinfecting operations.

For aircraft furnishings, they recommend using a solution of A good practice is to take an inventory of switch positions, both 60 percent isopropyl alcohol and 40 percent water. For leather and before and after cleaning and disinfecting. This will help prevent windows, use only commercially available soap and water, such as inadvertently activating a system when power is applied to the dishwashing soap. Lastly, for electronic displays, the guidance says to aircraft. use a solution of 50 percent isopropyl alcohol and 50 percent water We all have to adapt to new situations and new ways of life. with a micro-fiber cloth to prevent scratches. Only time will tell how long it will be before we return to a “pre-

It’s important to note that the guidance described above is COVID” level of operations. Until then, all we can do is make the only meant as an example; it may not be compatible with your best of it. And of course, keep our aircraft clean. q

Cleaning and disinfecting aircraft surfaces that may have come into contact with the Coronavirus requires cleaning before a disinfectant is applied, according to CDC/EPA guidelines and OEM recommendations.