Zone boarding exposes first-class passengers to extra germs

It’s one of those rare instances where first-class passengers, with their pre-flight cocktails and cloth napkins, have it the worst.

Research led by a cross-disciplinary team at Arizona State University used a mathematical model to predict how many people will be infected using different boarding methods, according to an article in Thursday’s Fast Company magazine. 

The risk management study found the current airplane-boarding model — the financial-and-social-status model that had a reverse effect on the Titanic — to be the worst at quelling disease propagation, with first class passengers facing the most disease exposure.

Researchers considered a situation where a single, unidentified person on a plane is infected with Ebola, and how that infection might spread depending on where the person sits, and the way in which the person enters the cabin in the first place, the article stated.

Boarding people in zones — first class first, business next, back-of-the-plane last, and so on — means that the greatest possible number of people are likely to come into contact with the infected person in Seat 10A, perhaps a person with Ebola who’s forced to hover over the seats nine rows before getting to his or her own.