'There are hundreds of sick crew': is toxic air on planes making frequent flyers ill?

Kate Leahy used to work as cabin crew, until she was signed off sick. Then a young colleague died in 2014. She talks to the former staff looking for answers

Three years ago, Matt Bass, 34, died suddenly in his sleep. According to his father, Charlie, he had been feeling unwell for a few months. He'd lost weight, had digestive and respiratory problems, and suffered from severe fatigue. Doctors thought he might have Crohn's disease, but were struggling to reach a diagnosis.

Matt was cabin crew for British Airways, and on the day he died had returned overnight from Accra, Ghana (by cabin crew standards, a relatively short, six-hour flight). He went for a scheduled MRI scan, hoping to get to the bottom of his ill health, then in the evening to a crew friend's house in Slough for pizza. After a few hours, he said he needed a rest and went to lie down. When his friends couldn't wake him, they administered CPR. An ambulance arrived and took him to A&E, where paramedics tried to revive him; but he never woke up.