A fraud investigator who played a key role in exposing the Post Office scandal has said that pilots being sickened by contaminated cabin air is a "bigger cover-up than Horizon".

Ron Warmington and his colleague Ian Henderson, from the forensic accounting firm Second Sight Support Services Ltd, were famously hired - then fired - by the Post Office to examine claims that glitches in its Horizon computer system were creating a false impression that money had gone missing from branches.

An interim report by the pair - who were jointly portrayed in the ITV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office by a single character, 'Bob Rutherford' - identified two bugs in the system which they said had caused problems for 76 Post Office branches.

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The finding cast doubt on the reliability of Horizon data used to prosecute hundreds of subpostmasters for theft and false accounting, as well as the consequences for others who had lost life savings trying to make up the imaginary losses.

Second Sight's contract was terminated by the Post Office in 2015, but Mr Warmington and Mr Henderson remained staunch allies of the victims and gave scathing testimonies in June this year when they appeared at the Post Office inquiry.

Since the scandal was catapulted into worldwide notoriety with the broadcast of the ITV drama in January, Mr Warmington has been in demand for his expertise in exposing corporate cover ups and fraud.

The 75-year-old former Citibank director, who lives in the Cotswolds, said: "Since Second Sight became a sort of world name following the drama, I've had loads of cases come in that I just can't handle.

"Including whistleblowers in the NHS, and in the Ministry of Defence, and in some of the television channels.

"People saying 'there's a monstrous fraud going on and all sorts of stuff being covered up - can you do anything about it?'."

The character of 'Bob Rutherford' in ITV drama 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office' is an amalgam of Second Sight investigators Ron Warmington and Ian HendersonThe character of 'Bob Rutherford' in ITV drama 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office' is an amalgam of Second Sight investigators Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson (Image: ITV)

For Mr Warmington, however, the next "monstrous cover up" waiting to be exposed isn't a financial one - but a health one.

He believes that airline pilots are being harmed - sometimes catastrophically - by exposure to toxic fumes in cabin air, something the airline industry and government regulators have repeatedly denied.

"Sooner or later, this is going to burst into public awareness, with an explosive force," he said.

"I suspect there will be a major crash at some point, brought about by the comatose pilot and co-pilot letting go of the controls on descent.

"There's been near misses.

"This is a global cover up. It's real, and it's bigger than Horizon.

"I've been head of security for Citibank, I've been a director of Citibank, I've been around the block.

"I would never have progressed within those organisations if I'd been the boy who cries wolf. If I'd said 'look, we've got a major crisis here', when they hadn't.

"I usually de-emphasise things and mute the message. But on this, I think it's outrageous."

Mr Warmington was drawn into the issue after Ian Warren - one of the subpostmasters wrongly accused of stealing £18,000 - had a chance encounter with Scottish former pilot and campaigner, John Hoyte, at an event in Norfolk.

Edinburgh-born Mr Hoyte, 68, gave up flying in 2005 after years of steadily declining health which he told The Herald earlier this year made him feel like he was "permanently intoxicated by alcohol".

At one point in the early 1990s, Mr Hoyte feared that problems with chronic fatigue, speech, and thinking were symptoms of variant CJD - the human form of mad cow disease.

John Hoyte (pictured) had to give up flying for good in 2005John Hoyte (pictured) had to give up flying for good in 2005 (Image: MarkGibson/Herald&Times)

Mr Hoyte, who now lives in Oban, went on to form the Aerotoxic Association in 2007 to bring together pilots, scientists, and other experts convinced that the airline industry is turning a blind eye to the problem.

The issue - documented from the 1950s onwards - relates to the way that modern passenger jets are designed to pressurise the cabin using compressed air taken directly from the aircraft engines.

The theory goes that this "bleed air" can become contaminated with engine oils and hydraulic fluids, causing chronic exposure to low doses of poisonous chemicals and occasionally high-dose, disabling "fume events".

No aircraft currently flying has any form of detection system fitted to warn when these events occur.

Over the past 20 years, more than 50 recommendations and findings have been made by 12 air accident departments globally, directly relating to contaminated air exposures on passenger jets.

In the UK, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has twice called for contaminated air warning systems to be installed on all large passenger aircraft, but this has been dismissed by manufacturers and regulators.

The Civil Aviation Authority insist that there is "no positive evidence of a link between exposure to contaminants in cabin air and any long-term health effects", and Aerotoxic Syndrome is not a medically recognised condition.

The Herald previously reported on the experience of pilot Tom O'Riordan The Herald previously reported on the experience of pilot Tom O'Riordan (Image: Supplied)

Earlier this year, The Herald reported on the case of Tom O'Riordan - one of the pilots supported by the Aerotoxic Association - who was hospitalised after the cockpit was engulfed by a "fumey" smell as he came into land at Dublin airport on June 5 2023.

After 30 years as a pilot, including 15 with Aer Lingus, he has never been able to return to work.

Mr Warmington, who has acted as an informal advisor to Mr Hoyte's group, said he is "immensely sympathetic" to its members.

He said: "I do admire the group immensely. John's career was cut cruelly short and my heart goes out to him.

"But they're thrashing around trying to get some attention, and nobody is paying attention to them."

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Mr Warmington was speaking to the Herald ahead of the 2024 Aircraft Cabin Air Conference, which is due to take place at Imperial College London on September 17 and 18.

It will include presentations on a new blood test designed to confirm exposures to contaminated air on aircraft, and the latest developments in 'bleed air' detection technology. 

Dr Susan Michaelis, a former Stirling University academic who heads up the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive Ltd, a health and safety lobby group, said it was "totally unacceptable that the industry continues to ignore vital safety recommendations and ignore the evidence that crew impairment is happening".

She added: "Many chemicals known to contaminate the breathing air supply are odourless and colourless and yet aircraft are flying with no form of contaminated air warning system."

Safety experts say it is 'totally unacceptable' the the industry has so far ignored recommendations (Image: PA)

Mr Warmington said he sees several parallels from his experience with the Post Office and what campaigners have encountered with the airline industry.

He said: "What happened in the Horizon scandal was that the Post Office was taking 'risk acceptance' decisions, but instead of the Post Office carrying the burden of that risk, they transferred it onto the shoulder of the postmasters who weren't involved in the decision in the first place.

"In this case, with aerotoxicity, the burden of risk for this phenomenon is carried by the staff, the passengers, and the people on whom planes will drop.

"Across the airline industry, maintenance schedules have been pared back. That's one of the reasons why the aerotoxicity problem is bigger than it used to be.

"I used to work for General Electric and I know what it costs to take an engine off an aeroplane, stick it in the workshop, refurbish it, and put it back on the wing again. It's a bloody fortune.

"So they've been stretching out the maintenance schedules as a result of which - just if it was your car - you start to get oil leaks.

"But instead of dripping on the road, in a plane the oil drips are going into the engine burners and being vaporised.

"The longer they stretch out the maintenance schedules, the worse that problem becomes.

"But if ever the boards discuss this issue - and you can bet they do - they're going to be saying 'hang on, we'll be out of a job if we try to fix this problem - let's just hope it goes away. 

"And that was the story at the Post Office."