All in the mind?
Miraculous escapes and horrific incarceration
This is the story of former British Aerospace Pilot Leonard Lawrence, who was right to fear admitting to physical symptoms of time distortion and disassociation during flight. The events which followed lost him his wife, children, home, personal assets and liberty.
Len both experienced fume events and recorded them. The first recorded was on 29 November 1991. Len was the Handing Pilot on an aircraft that had passed V1 (the speed at which the aircraft is committed to becoming airborne) during takeoff the flight deck suddenly filled with hot acrid fumes. Both Len and the captain were blinded by them. They lost all visual reference and could not see the cockpit instruments. Their skin was burning and they found it difficult to breathe, at the same time they were accelerating in excess of 160 mph.
The captain, also a British Aerospace pilot, with many years’ experience of the aircraft, felt his way along the instrument panel and located the dump valve, which lets air out of the aircraft. Within about three seconds visual reference was restored. The fume incident had lasted for about 15 seconds. They started their emergency drill and alerted Air Traffic Control that they were in a MAYDAY situation. The aircraft then made an emergency landing and an emergency evacuation was executed.
Len’s last recorded fume event occurred in 2004. The handling pilot was a recently retired UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) flight operation inspector, a senior position within aviation. He and Len (Co-pilot), noticed an oily smell on the flight deck. Disassociation synonymous with toxic chemical exposure, means that Len still can’t understand exactly what happened, but he knows that the aircraft descended to less than 500 feet above the city of Amsterdam. The only time it is ever safe to be this low is during takeoff and landing, but the pilots had not just taken off and were not planning to land. Although Len wasn’t actually flying the aircraft, it worries him greatly that he failed to intervene promptly and ensure the pilot corrected the course. Both men were still thoroughly confused when they eventually instigated a climb to 1,500 feet. The next day the same two Pilots were flying the aircraft to Italy, when Swiss air traffic control gave them an instruction to reroute over Switzerland. As Len puts it:
“Both the captain and I were unable to process the information being given. That was my last ever flight before I resigned. Why did I resign? Because I could not, and indeed still cannot, think clearly enough to fly.”
Len counts himself lucky to be alive. He certainly wasn’t lucky in what followed. Although the effects of breathing toxic fumes were made known to psychiatrists whose help he sought, this was ignored and he was falsely diagnosed with a mental illness and medicated. This is particularly problematic because ‘treatment’ for mental illness with pharmaceutical drugs only serves to exacerbate damage to cells already damaged through chemical exposure. (A known effect of organophosphate poisoning is that pharmaceutical drugs are negatively modified- creating a further toxic effect).
Len was held captive in the United Kingdom by the Official Solicitor to the High Court for almost eighteen months and medicated to the extent that he was incapable of legal discussion and understanding. During which time most of his assets were disposed of, by Solicitors and Barristers, whilst generating revenue for themselves, all without Len’s knowledge and consent.
Finally, without the knowledge of the Official Solicitor, the British Airline Pilots Association directed Len to Professor Gordon Turnbull, FRCP FRCPsych (Psychiatric adviser to the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority) who reviewed the evidence, stopped all medication and Len was referred to Neurologists for brain damage assessment. Thereafter Len received specialist toxicology treatment for poisoning by Organophosphates with additional support from the Royal British Legion, SAFFA and the Royal Naval Benevolent Trust.
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On 13 October 2014 Ten Record Boxes containing Lever Arch Files were disclosed to Leonard Lawrence
following a Subject Access Request copied in to a High Court Judge.
On the 15 October 2014 Leonard Lawrence was informed by the Royal Courts of Justice that he could file an Appeal.
After inappropriate treatment for alleged mental illness the fact that organophosphates damage the brain and its thought processes are realised at last.
For an excellent video report on fume events in aircraft and scientific explanations for the adverse health effects experienced by pilots, air crew and passengers alike please go to this external link at aerotoxic.org
For a PowerPoint presentation of the evidence given by Leonard Lawrence to the Cranfield University Click here.
Click Here
N.B. If not installed you may need a Powerpoint viewer, available from the Microsoft web site and as an optional extra with some Word software.
For a PowerPoint presentation of the evidence given by Pilot Leonard Lawrence at a Conference on the Abuse of Psychiatry in the United Kingdom Legal System by pilot Leonard Lawrence – 23.4.16 Click here.
For more Scientific Reports on the Cabin Air issue see
Dr Nigel Dowdall
Ref: A new path in NHS care for pilots and passengers affected by organophosphate fume events.
Dr Dowall, the former Civil Aviation Authority, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sally Evans and the Civil Aviation Authority adviser in psychiatry Professor Gordon Turnbull FRCP FRCPsych were instrumental in releasing me from the Official Solicitors custody.
A word of warning
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) external lawyers Simpson Millar LLP Solicitors.
In 2013 Mrs Justice Pauffley instructed His Honour Judge Simon Oliver to send my case to the Court of Appeal, it was later established in 2015 that Simpson Millar LLP had withheld from both the Court of Protection and Court of Appeal, Ten Box Files containing my case files.
Kindest Regards
Leonard Lawrence
Head of Aviation Health Unit Medical Department
CAA Safety Regulation Group
Aviation House
Gatwick Airport South
West Sussex
RH6 OYR
BALPA failed to take any action. I personally would not seek a referral to Guy's Hospital without first speaking to those in the farming community that have been exposed to organophosphate poisoning, like Richard Bruce.
UPDATE
For interviews with Len Lawrence discussing the above issues please view the video recordings here and here.
Dated 26/09/2014. Updated 04/06/2024
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