oxygen tour

• Înregistrează-te
• Autentifică-te
• Vacante externe
• Vacante interne
• Super oferte

Drumetie in Insulele Baleare - Palma de Mallorca

7 NOPTI DE LA 1.629 Euro 1.350 Euro

Plecare in 27.05.2024

Mallorca este cea mai mare insula din Arhipeleagul Balearelor, raiul amatorilor de drumetii dar si a..

Aventura in Madagascar

14 NOPTI DE LA 3.995 Euro 2.900 Euro

Plecare in 28.05.2024

Calatoreste in Madagascar si descopera o adevarata comoara a bogatiilor naturale si culturale si est..

Vacanta Spania: Caminito del Rey, Sevilia si Gibraltarul

7 NOPTI DE LA 1.120 Euro

Plecare in 20.06.2024

Ne-am propus sa ne bucuram de vacanta in cea mai insorita parte a Europei – pe Costa del Sol, sa urc..

Vacanta pe velier in Lefkada

7 NOPTI DE LA 940 Euro

Plecare in 21.06.2024

Anul acesta incearca ceva nou. Vacanta pe velier in Grecia.  Un lux accesibil pe care meriti ..

Expeditie la 5137m pe Muntele Ararat in Turcia

7 NOPTI DE LA 1.071 Euro

Plecare in 06.07.2024

Inaltandu-se la 5137m inaltime, Muntele Ararat este cel mai inalt varf din Turcia si face din drumet..

Aventura pe Kilimanjaro si relaxare in Zanzibar

16 NOPTI DE LA 3.450 Euro

Plecare in 12.08.2024

Tanzania inseamna expeditie pe cel mai inalt varf din Africa: Kilimanjaro si relaxare pe plajele exo..

Vacanta in Insulele Feroe

9 NOPTI DE LA 2.970 Euro

Insulele Feroe sunt un "secret" bine pastrat de-a lungul timpului. Acest arhipelagul stancos indepar..

Vacanta in Alaska: O aventura in inima naturii salbatice

10 NOPTI DE LA 2.990 Euro

Plecare in 04.09.2024

Alaska sau taramul gheturilor vesnice, este patria ursilor Grizzly ce pescuiesc somoni, a gheturil..

Vacanta Norvegia: Lofoten, fiorduri si Aurora Boreala

11 NOPTI DE LA 2.299 Euro

Plecare in 15.09.2024

De ce sa vii in Vacanta Oxigen din Norvegia:Aurora Boreala;Trekking in cel mai frumos loc de pamant:..

Tour du Mont Blanc

9 NOPTI DE LA 1.627 Euro

Plecare in 10.08.2024

In jurul Mont Blancului- te ducem pe cel mai celebru traseu de trekking din Europa.Traversam Alpii d..

Aventura in Noua Zeelanda – de la Nord la Sud cu Radu Paltineanu

11 NOPTI DE LA 3.400 Euro

Plecare in 28.02.2025

Ce zici de o aventura in Noua Zeelanda pe care nu o vei uita vreodata alaturi de unul dintre cei mai..

Excursie munte: Aventuri si povesti de primavara pe Varful Funduri

EXCURSIE 1 ZI LA 170,00 Lei

Plecare in 11.05.2024

A fost odata ca niciodata o zi de sambata, intr-o zi de mai. O perioada perfecta sa fii in Piatra Cr..

Excursie Muntii Bucegi: magie cu iz de primavara pe Bucsa

EXCURSIE 1 ZI LA 180,00 Lei

Plecare in 18.05.2024

Ne dorim sa ne petrecem timpul cat mai mult in natura, pe munte, sa simtim adierea vantului si sa ne..

Excursie printre flori de munte la Cabana Malaiesti

Cabana Malaiesti a ramas unul dintre locurile de suflet ale Oxigenului. Cum sa ne imaginam valea? Im..

Excursie Muntii Baiului: Lacul ascuns din inima Carpatilor

Plecare in 09.06.2024

Vara aceasta ne petrecem weekend-ul acolo unde ne simtim cel mai aproape de noi insine, in natura, ..

Iti oferim o experienta mai buna in utilizarea acestui site web, prin utilizarea cookie-urilor. Prin continuarea navigarii, iti exprimi acordul pentru utilizarea acestora. Daca doresti mai multe informatii, poti da click aici .

Primesti gratuit un Ebook cu 120 - Sfaturi de calatorie 

Oxygen Tours

• See all photos

Snorkel Tour to Koh Nangyuan and the hidden bays of Koh Tao onboard the Oxygen

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Oxygen Tours - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024) - Tripadvisor

Oxygen Tours

• See all photos

Snorkel Tour to Koh Nangyuan and the hidden bays of Koh Tao onboard the Oxygen

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

OXYGEN TOURS (Koh Tao) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go

Oxygen Tours

• See all photos

Snorkel Tour to Koh Nangyuan and the hidden bays of Koh Tao onboard the Oxygen

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Oxygen Tours - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Deals of the Week   Solo is the new black   Up to 50% OFF

All Tours Operated By Oxygen Tours

Discover the best Oxygen Tours adventures in one convenient place. TourRadar offers 23 Oxygen Tours tours. You can find the perfect trip spanning across 3 day to 12 day itineraries with prices starting from just EUR 56 per day!

23 Oxygen Tours trips

Athens Holiday Package

The tour was well organised. The staff was friendly and helpful in providing places to go. The city tour of Athens was breathtaking, definelty worth it. The food tour was delicous. Would recommend!!!

Milos & Paros 7 days

Was in contact every step of the way

Athens and Santorini ( Noisless Breeze )

Me and a friend took this trip in October 2022. The Country of Greece is absolutely amazing and beautiful! You could not beat the price for the things that we saw. We were under the assumption that this was a “group tour” and surprise surprise it was not!! Turned out to be a private tour doing quite a bit on our own. Most of it was city centered so that wasn’t so bad.. nightlife in Athens was beautiful and safe pretty much. Thank God, my friend and I were both familiar with Europe or else this could have went really badly for newcomers! We did so much walking and we never saw our tour point of contact point the entire trip! LoL. We just messenger him by phone or called him with pertinent questions. You better pay close attention that what you paid for is in the itineraries that you signed up for because that can be tricky. You cannot be a passive person on a trip like this when something is not right to you. Say something! One tour guide, literally told us that many times people don’t see everything they pay for that is in the itineraries . You only see it if you make a fuss about it . Pretty much do most on your own, except for maybe 3 things out of seven days. It is a private tour. It wasn’t like that every day. The trip overall was amazing but you better make sure that you ask the right questions before you take this trip! Ask if it is a “group” tour or private; ask if you get excursion tour with a guide. Don’t bother bringing shoes only sneakers because we were walking a minimum of four hours a day up some very steep hills and winding Hills. We got lost for 30 minutes trying to find our guide and transportation for that day who did not pick us up directly from the hotel. We had to walk to find the pick up point, and we walked up some very steep and winding Hills. It was especially bad because I had a bum leg with a sciatic nerve issue, but we made it. The hotel in Santorini was amazing, and that was because there was a mixup with the original hotel and they ended up giving us a suite, which was very nice! The other hotel we stayed in in Athens was so so and that was OK because we didn’t plan on being there forever. There was nothing American on the TV channels any place we went. Again, the overall trip was just amazing, but other things could have been be more desirable CLEAR.

Athens - Mykonos - Santorini ( White Sanded Glamour )

The only thing Please tell your guest how long is the ferry ride To santorini I wanted to stay an extra day in Athens and booked a extra night but we arrived at midnight at the hotel and next day we had to leave early for the airport Otherwise it was super Georg was the most attentive guide

Athens - Milos - Paros 9 days

Athens - Ios - Mykonos ( Chill out and party )

Athens citybreak

Milos & Santorini 7 days

Athens - Mykonos - Santorini ( Explorer )

Milos 4 days

Athens - Santorini - Crete ( The origins of Atlantis )

• Island Hopping

Athens - Naxos - Santorini - Crete ( Aegean Gems )

• In-depth Cultural

Ancient Greece highlights

Mykonos - Santorini 7 days

Athens - Paros - Mykonos ( Stunning white )

Reviews of oxygen tours tours.

Oxygen Tour Koh Tao

• See all photos

Similar Experiences

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Oxygen Tour Koh Tao - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Mars may have been more Earth-like than we thought, discovery of oxygen-rich rocks reveals

Newfound rocks on Mars suggest the planet may have once sported an oxygen-rich atmosphere, making it more Earth-like and hospitable to life than previously thought.

A collection of rocks scattered on an ancient shoreline on Mars might indicate that the Red Planet was once far more Earth-like than scientists previously thought.

The rocks, discovered by NASA's Curiosity rover, are unusually rich in manganese oxide — a chemical that adds to growing evidence that the once-habitable Mars may have sported Earth-like oxygen levels and life-friendly conditions early in its history, scientists say.

NASA calls manganese on Earth " an unsung hero in the evolution of life ." Scientists know from our planet's geological history that manganese was abundant in rocks and in the oceans before the earliest life-forms emerged roughly 4 billion years ago and that it paved the way for oxygen that most life now relies on. 

The only known ways to produce manganese oxide, however, involve either abundant oxygen or microbial life. But there isn't strong evidence for the former on Mars, and none for the latter, leaving scientists puzzled by how the chemical formed in the newfound rocks.

Related: Hundreds of black 'spiders' spotted in mysterious 'Inca City' on Mars in new satellite photos

Forming rocks rich in manganese oxide "is easy to do on Earth because of microbes and because of oxygen — which [also forms] because of microbes — so it all points back toward life," lead study author Patrick Gasda , a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, told Live Science. "We of course have no evidence of life on Mars , so if we're trying to form oxygen in a fully abiotic system, our current understanding of Mars doesn't explain that."

The Curiosity rover came across the heavily eroded rocks while trekking through the middle of Gale crater, a 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) ancient lake bed that the rover has been exploring since 2012. The rover's ChemCam instrument "sniffed" the manganese oxide within the rocks by vaporizing tiny bits with a laser and then analyzing the resulting cloud of plasma. The compound constitutes nearly half of the rocks' chemical makeup, according to the new study, which was published last week in the journal JGR Planets .

Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now

Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.

At the site where Curiosity found the new rocks, the rover recorded 10 to 15 meters (33 to 49 feet) of elevation change. Although that's tiny when compared with the hundreds of meters Curiosity has climbed over the years, it is "pointing us toward something special going on in that place," Gasda told Live Science. The rock texture where the new sandstones were found appears to have transitioned from "curved" to "flat-lined" — a change Gasda and his colleagues are interpreting as a river channel opening out into a lake. 

"That means we're at the shore of the lake or near the shore of the lake," Gasda said. He noted that this interpretation is uncertain due to limited data, because Curiosity drove past the region just once. "That made the interpretation really challenging, but this is our best hypothesis," he added. 

If the hypothesis is correct, the rocks may have been dumped in the region when the river water slowed down as it entered the lake, similar to manganese-oxide-rich rocks that have been found on the shores of shallow lakes on Earth.

The newfound rocks are "another line of evidence for liquid water on Mars in the past, which is beneficial for life," Manasvi Lingam , an astrobiologist at the Florida Institute of Technology who was not affiliated with the new research, told Live Science. "This work provides evidence in favor of habitability."

—  Spooky 'spiders on Mars' finally explained after two decades —  15 Martian objects that aren't what they seem — Mars' oldest meteorite traced to strange double impact crater

However, not everyone agrees that the newfound rocks indicate an oxygen-rich Mars. According to Jeffrey Catalano , a professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the study, the presence of oxidized rocks could help scientists understand whether Mars, like Earth, went through "a punctuated transition" from a lower-oxygen period and a higher-oxygen period. "The impact of manganese oxides on our understanding of such a transition, however, have been overstated, here and in prior work ," he told Live Science.

Catalano was part of a 2022 study that found manganese oxide could easily form under Mars-like conditions without atmospheric oxygen. That research, which was based on lab experiments, showed that elements such as chlorine and bromine, which were abundant on early Mars, converted manganese dissolved in water into manganese oxide minerals. This finding offered an alternative to oxygen that could explain rocks like the newfound ones on Mars.

"There are several life forms even on Earth that do not require oxygen to survive," Kaushik Mitra , a geochemist at the University of Texas at San Antonio who led that study, said in a statement in 2022. "I don't think of it as a 'setback' to habitability — only that there were probably no oxygen-based lifeforms."

Sharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X @skuthunur

Sun's chaotic peak triggers record-breaking 'global auroras' on Mars

Hundreds of black 'spiders' spotted in mysterious 'Inca City' on Mars in new satellite photos

Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch scrubbed due to loud buzzing valve

Most Popular

• 2 Asteroid that exploded over Berlin was fastest-spinning space rock ever recorded
• 3 Cave of Crystals: The deadly cavern in Mexico dubbed 'the Sistine Chapel of crystals'
• 4 Why do dogs sniff each other's butts?
• 5 'Lost' satellite finally found after orbiting undetected for 25 years
• 2 Why do most mammals have 5 fingers?
• 3 Siberia's 'gateway to the underworld' is growing a staggering amount each year
• 4 'Major lunar standstill' may reveal if Stonehenge is aligned with the moon

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!

Paul John Knowles, Who Was "More Vicious" than Ted Bundy, Terrorized the South in the ‘70s

Paul John Knowles — who is believed to have killed at least 18 people — has been described by investigators as "evil."

Ted Bundy , Dennis Rader , and John Wayne Gacy are known as some of the country’s most notorious serial killers — but there’s one equally brutal killer who is often overlooked. 

How to Watch

Watch  Sins of the South  on Oxygen Sunday, May 12 at 7/6c and next day on Peacock. 

Known for his good looks and charismatic personality, Paul John Knowles terrorized the south in the 1970s, with authorities connecting him to the killing of at least 18 people with seemingly no distinct pattern or motive to his violent acts as he drifted from one state to another. 

“I think he was more vicious than Bundy was,” retired investigating officer James Josey told Atlanta station WXIA-TV of Knowles’ heinous acts, which took place in the South — a region highlighted in the new series  Sins of the South , airing Sundays on Oxygen.

Before he was gunned down by a Georgia Bureau of Investigations agent while trying to make a brazen escape in 1974, Knowles himself claimed to have taken the lives of 35 people, but authorities have said he was known to embellish his crimes and have been unable to verify those claims.

Don't miss the latest in true crime: Army Vet Fatally Shot Man His Girlfriend Had Told Him Molested Her: "I Pulled the Trigger 7 or 8 Times" Cold Justice Aids in Arrest of S.C. Couple Suspected of 2015 Halloween Quadruple Murder Teen Couple Goes On L.A. Murder Spree, “Wipes Out” Family in Bloody Rampage

“Just about everywhere he went he left a body,” one former investigator told Florida station WJXT .

Who was John Paul Knowles? 

Knowles was born in Orlando, Florida  in 1946, but according to his own account, it wasn’t long before he began to use his good looks and charm for devious means.

“I’m a criminal, and I’ve been a criminal since I was a little kid,” he once told a psychiatrist in tapes obtained by WJXT, adding that “nothing” good had happened in his life.

Knowles first headed to prison as a teenager, according to The Macon Telegraph . 

In July of 1974, Knowles escaped from a Jacksonville, Florida jail cell where he was being held for stabbing a bartender, per WGXA.

What did the Casanova Killer do? 

That same month, Knowles is believed to have claimed his first victim. Authorities believe he went on to kill at least 18 people as he traveled through Georgia, Florida, Texas, Nevada, and Alabama. 

"He had no compunction about killing you, makes no difference whether he strangled you, whether he shot you, whether he stabbed you or what," Josey told the station. "He was a martial arts expert. He was tough. He was mean."

But Knowles was also known to be charming, once even impressing a British newspaper reporter he met at an Atlanta Holiday Inn bar. The reporter — who engaged in a brief affair with the killer — would later describe him, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , as sensitive with “gaunt good looks.” 

His Victims

The exact number of victims Knowles killed is not known. While he claimed in recordings sent to his attorney to have killed 35 people, he was also known to exaggerate his crimes and craved fame and notoriety.

"He wanted a book written, he wanted a movie done, and the proceeds to be split with his mother," Josey said, according to WMAZ . 

Knowles was formally linked to the murders of four people in Georgia, two in Florida, and one in Ohio, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution , but investigators believe he killed at least 18.

The killer’s first known victim was 65-year-old Jacksonville resident Alice Curtis, who was later found bound and gagged, per WGXA. 

It’s believed he was also responsible for the death of 49-year-old Marjorie Howe, who was found strangled to death with her own stockings. Authorities believe he took her husband’s guns and a television from the home, WXIA-TV reported.

RELATED: Iowa Mom Shot 20-Year-Old "Neighbor Kid" Nine Times and Prosecutors Didn't Buy Her Home Invasion Claim

In August of 1974, Ima Jean Sanders, a 13-year-old girl, went missing from her Warner Robins, Georgia home. Her remains were found in a wooded area two years later, but they wouldn’t be positively identified until decades later. Her death was connected to Knowles in 2011 after he said in the recordings of his crimes that he had raped and strangled a young hitchhiker in August of 1974 named “Alma,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

“He solved this case himself,” Josey told the paper. “He had an ego trip, so he made those tapes. Without those, she’d just be another unidentified victim.”

The same month Sanders disappeared, Knowles is believed to have broken into the Musella, Georgia home of Kathie Sue Pierce. He strangled the young mother, but left her 3-year-old son in the home unharmed. She was found in the bathroom with a phone cord wrapped around her neck . 

A few months later, in November, authorities say Knowles struck up a friendship with Carswell Carr and was invited back to his Milledgeville, Georgia home, where he stabbed Carr to death more than 27 times with a pair of scissors and then strangled his 15-year-old daughter, per WJXT. 

“Seeing a child killed like that is just awful. It's something I remember to this day,” Former Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Roy Harris told WGXA.

Authorities believe that Knowles was also responsible for the killings of hitchhikers Edward Hilliard and Debbie Griffin, who disappeared in November of 1974. 

What happened to Paul John Knowles?

Knowles’ crime spree began to unravel on Nov. 16, 1974 when Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Charles Campbell pulled him over for a routine traffic stop, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page . 

During the stop, Knowles grabbed the officer’s service weapon, held him hostage, and, using the trooper’s patrol car, pulled over driver James Meyer. Knowles allegedly drove both men to Pulaski County, Georgia, where he handcuffed them to a tree and shot them in the head, per WJXT. 

He was later captured at a roadblock near McDonough.

The next month, Knowles, 28, was accompanying law enforcement officials to the scene of one of his crimes when he used a paperclip to open his handcuffs. Knowles lunged for Douglas County Sheriff Earl Lee’s gun and was shot in the chest three times by GBI agent Ronnie Angel.

“I did what I had to do; I just did my job,” Angel would later tell the Atlanta Journal Constitution, describing the killer as “evil.”

To learn more about other killers who operated in the South, check out  Sins of the South ,  airing Sundays on Oxygen. 

Sins of the South

• Serial Killers

Related Stories

Scott Peterson's Defense Makes New Bid to Retest DNA

Why Do Women Kill? Most Unusual Murder Motives

The Most Shocking Cases Ever Seen on Snapped

High School Sweethearts Kill Family In Murder Spree

S.C. Couple Arrested for 2015 Halloween Quadruple Murder

Mom of 2 Vanishes After Harrowing Phone Call With Friend

Prosecutors Want These Words Barred From Delphi Murder Trial

Poker Ace Beaten To Death, Dumped in Vegas Hotel Stairwell

Gypsy Rose Blanchard Details New Memoir My Time to Stand

Wife Tricks Lover Into Murdering Her Husband

Iowa Mom Shot 20-Year-Old Neighbor Nine Times in Her Home

Married Couple, Elderly Mothers Murdered on Halloween

Latest Videos

Your First Look at Sins of the South

Recommended for You

Cold Justice Assists in Conviction for Nori Jones' Murder

Michigan Grandma Repeatedly Shot Grandson, Killing Him

15-Year-Old, Boyfriend Plot Her Father's Murder

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Launch for Boeing Starliner's first crewed ride into space has been scrubbed

Joe Hernandez

Photographers capture the Boeing Starliner capsule atop an Atlas V rocket as it is rolled out to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41, Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Terry Renna/AP hide caption

Photographers capture the Boeing Starliner capsule atop an Atlas V rocket as it is rolled out to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41, Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

After a series of troubled test flights and ongoing problems with its commercial aviation wing, Boeing will have to wait a little longer before it can fly people for the first time on its Starliner capsule.

Monday's launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., was called off ahead of its planned 10:34 p.m. EST launch because of a faulty oxygen relief valve, according to NASA. The next launch attempt will take place no earlier than Friday, according to a statement from United Launch Alliance, the company behind the Atlas V rocket that will carry the capsule into space.

The latest test flight comes roughly a decade after NASA awarded Boeing a more than $4 billion contract as part of the agency's effort to pay private companies to help ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

SpaceX, which was also awarded a contract through the same NASA initiative, has flown nine missions for NASA and another four private, crewed spaceflights.

Boeing's Starliner program has been plagued with delays and design problems for several years.

The Starliner failed to reach the I.S.S. during its first mission in 2019 after its onboard clock, which was set incorrectly , caused a computer to fire the capsule's engines too early. The spacecraft successfully docked with the I.S.S. during its second test flight in 2022, despite the failure of some thrusters during the launch.

Experts: Boeing's safety culture is broken and defective airplanes are being put out

Boeing then scrapped the planned launch of the Starliner's first crewed flight last year, after company officials realized that adhesive tape used on the craft to wrap hundreds of yards of wiring was flammable, and lines connecting the capsule to its three parachutes appeared to be weaker than expected. The launch was delayed indefinitely.

Ahead of Monday's planned launch attempt, the aerospace giant and NASA both had expressed confidence that Starliner was ready for its first crewed voyage into orbit.

"We are to a state now where we are ready to perform the test flight," Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and program manager of the Commercial Crew Program, said during a Friday press conference. "I've never felt readier on any mission that I've ever participated in."

In this photo provided by NASA, the Boeing Starliner spacecraft is lifted for mounting on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Kim Shiflett/AP hide caption

Two veteran NASA astronauts — Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams — are supposed to fly aboard the Starliner and spend about a week at the I.S.S. before returning to Earth.

"We feel very safe and very comfortable when this spacecraft flies," Williams said earlier this month. "This is where we're supposed to be."

Wilmore told reporters earlier this month that his and Williams' backgrounds as Navy pilots propelled them onto the Starliner mission.

"I know I don't think either one of us ever dreamed that we'd be associated with the first flight of a brand new spacecraft," Wilmore said. "But we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that."

Laura Forczyk, executive director of the space consulting firm Astralytical, said the "stakes are higher" for this test flight because it's the first time Starliner will travel with people on board.

Forczyk said the two-year gap between the Starliner's last successful test flight and this week's planned launch "both gives me confidence, because it means that NASA and Boeing are taking this very seriously, but it also makes me nervous because it has been two years since this vehicle has been operational."

After 6 months in space and a fiery return over the U.S., NASA's Crew-7 is back home

Meanwhile, Boeing has been facing intense scrutiny this year on the commercial aviation side of its business after a rear door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff in January.

Whistleblowers have since come forward to detail alleged quality control lapses at the storied company, and the Federal Aviation Administration said it was opening an audit into Boeing's production. The Justice Department also announced it would open a criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines incident.

NPR's Geoff Brumfiel contributed reporting.

Smoking on oxygen killed 3 York countians this year. A $4.45 device might have saved them

It seems obvious that smoking while on oxygen can result in grave injury or death. Hearing about such a horrific case, many people reflexively default to victim blaming: It's sad, but they should have known better.

But experts say that victim blaming doesn't solve a widespread problem that could be prevented in many cases with a simple, inexpensive device that cuts off oxygen flow when exposed to flames.

And yet those devices are not mandated by many government agencies despite overwhelming evidence that they could save lives − not just of those who die or are injured smoking while on oxygen, but those of innocent family members also hurt or killed when oxygen explodes or flashes.

Oxygen, smoking equals horrific tragedy: Hanover firefighters show what can happen

More: Careless smoking resulted in explosion, fire that killed two: York County Coroner

In York County alone since the beginning of this year, there have been three deaths − including a child killed collaterally − resulting from smoking while on oxygen in three separate incidents:

• On Jan. 8, two people — including a 4-year-old child — died in a horrific West Manheim Township fire that was determined by officials to be due to "careless smoking" while on home oxygen. In that case, the fire was described by officials on the scene as "entirely preventable."
• Just weeks later, firefighters successfully rescued a couple from a burning home in Shrewsbury Township after an oxygen cylinder exploded while one of the two was smoking on home oxygen.
• Tragedy struck in York County again later that month with a 71-year-old woman dying in a Jackson Township fire that officials said was caused by smoking while on home oxygen. There, firefighters who forced entry into a soot-covered mobile home discovered the victim's body inside, a cigarette still clutched between her fingers.

The death toll from these incidents continues to climb. In 2019, a study by a medical manufacturer found that on average someone dies from a home oxygen fire every four days in the United States.

The real number may be much higher, with safety advocates tracking over 863 home oxygen-involved fires since 2019, sounding the alarm on what is likely an under-reporting of the fires and fatalities caused by these incidents.

Despite the death toll, safety advocates nationwide say that the federal government and medical product manufacturers have been slow to implement additional safety measures for home oxygen use, including many that have been commonplace in Europe and the Veterans Affairs health system for years.

Advocates say $4.45 thermal fuses that shut off the supply of oxygen when a fire ignites could dramatically lower the deaths and suffering inflicted by these incidents.

A problem caused by a solution

Dr. Mark Fisher, director of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Burn Center in Baltimore, Maryland, has been treating burn patients for over 20 years − and he said oxygen-related cases are common.

"We see them every week," Fisher said. "I'm never surprised when they come in."

All too often, Fisher said, those burned in these incidents are among the community's most vulnerable.

It's a fatal combination that stems from the very nature of those who need home oxygen therapy — individuals with significant lung illness often caused by an addiction to smoking in the first place.

Most often, Fisher says, oxygen treatment is provided to individuals suffering from various types of lung disease. "It can be challenging to those patients to just get the oxygen from the air into their bloodstreams," he said.

Such patients are not capable of absorbing enough oxygen from the air into their body due to the damage to their lungs.

Normally, about 20 to 21 percent of air is composed of oxygen, Fisher said. With oxygen therapy, patients are provided 100% oxygen through a nasal cannula — a device on the end of plastic tubing that slips over the patient's ears and flows oxygen into the nose.

"If you increase the oxygen content in the air that they breathe, they can achieve relatively normal oxygen levels in the tissues of their body," Fisher notes.

Home oxygen therapy provides these patients with the oxygen they need while in the comfort of their own home, and according to the American Thoracic Society, more than 1.5 million people use home oxygen therapy to treat their chronic conditions.

Hanover Area Fire & Rescue Fire Chief Tony Clousher has been a professional firefighter in southcentral Pennsylvania for almost 40 years, including many years as an instructor, and he's been involved in the fire service since he was just 16 years old.

"Typically, but not all the time, people who are on supplemental oxygen have a respiratory problem, such as COPD, caused by smoking in the first place," Clousher said.

A 2020 study in the Journal of Burn Care & Research conducted at a burn center in North Carolina estimated that up to 52 percent of home oxygen users continue to smoke despite the risks.

"Smoking is not an easy thing to give up," said Clousher. "It's very addictive. You smoke, you get COPD, you end up on oxygen, and now you're still smoking. Everything's cyclic."

A difficult prognosis

When the sequence of events demonstrated by firefighters happens on a human victim, the results are predictably catastrophic.

The patients admitted to Fisher's burn center are commonly injured during that initial flash, with fire shooting up into the nasal airways. When the insides of the airway become burned, those airways can swell to the point that the patient asphyxiates, Fisher said. In those cases, while patients may appear initially relatively stable, they may suddenly crash as that swelling develops. For those patients, medical personnel have to intubate victims, placing a breathing tube into their trachea to ensure that their airway remains open despite the swelling.

Intubated patients then require a ventilator, Fisher said, which can be incredibly difficult to wean patients from when they have weakened lungs due to existing illness. That makes the prognosis "very much" life threatening in those cases, Fisher said.

"The time immediately after a burn can be really super critical," Fisher said.

This urgency remains even with burns that don't pose an immediate threat to life, Fisher explains. If, for example, a burn is deep in the hands or feet of a victim, the blood to those areas may be strangulated by the burn. When this happens, patients require surgery to release the pressure on these areas to avoid irreparable damage to quality of life.

Advocating for change

Chief Ray Reynolds, the director of Fire and EMS for the Public Safety Department of Nevada, Iowa, has been advocating for safety measures to prevent oxygen-fueled fires.

Reynolds was thrust into the issue after his community of roughly 7,000 people saw multiple fatal fires that stemmed from smoking while using home oxygen.

"In just the last 365 days, we pulled four people out of burning buildings related to home oxygen," Reynolds said in a February interview. Those tragedies inspired him to search for a solution.

He was shocked by how easy it was to find: after a quick Google search, Reynolds learned of something that the Veterans Affairs health system and much of Europe already mandate: thermal fuses attached to the cannula and oxygen cylinders that are provided to home oxygen users.

"There's a lot of education that needs to take place on this," Reynolds said. "I'm embarrassed that, after 35 years, I didn't even know [thermal fuses] existed."

The concept is simple: thermal fuses are small attachments to oxygen tubing that upon being touched by fire break a fuse and shut off the flow of oxygen through the tubing. Each fuse costs $4.45, with standard practice calling for one fuse located at the cylinder side of the tube, and one fuse located at the cannula side of the tube, close to the patient's face.

Combined, the two fuses cost around $9.

"It's not a free pass to continue smoking," Reynolds said, but the safety device can prevent catastrophes.

According to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidelines, oxygen concentrators and cylinders state that such devices should provide a thermal fuse to stop the propagation of fire. Despite that, the practice has not become commonplace outside of countries that require them.

While $9 doesn't sound like much, many home medical equipment suppliers are already working under razor-thin margins, Reynolds said. These equipment suppliers may only get around $85 a month to visit patients at home and replace their oxygen supplies, often resulting in a profit of about $3 a month per patient.

Add nine additional dollars to the equation, and those suppliers are now operating at a loss, Reynolds said. He advocated for state reimbursements to cover the costs as a safety device.

Within months, Reynolds' advocacy would spur the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to become the first state in the nation to approve funding reimbursement for thermal fuses in November. There, thermal fuses are reimbursed under the same code for patient safety devices such as walkers and lift belts.

Now, Reynolds is leading an International Association of Fire Chiefs work group that is pushing to make these thermal fuses standard and reimbursable nationwide, instead of piecemealing the solution on a state-by-state basis.

The slow gears of government

Despite years of advocacy from various groups around the country, including 10 years of lobbying by the American Burn Association, the government has been slow to act on thermal fuses, Reynolds says.

While Veterans Affairs began including the fuses with home oxygen in 2018, almost six years later, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) still does not provide reimbursement.

"One federal agency approves it, the other doesn't," Reynolds said, "where's the disconnect?"

"Sooner or later, CMS has got to see that this is the best practice," said Reynolds.

Many of the victims of home oxygen fires are Medicare recipients, Reynolds said.

If Medicare implemented thermal fuses, Reynolds said, "we think that Medicare could single-handedly reduce our fire deaths in the country by 12%."

In the United States between 2019 and 2021, Reynolds cited 152 deaths attributable to smoking on home oxygen. Comparatively, in the United Kingdom, where thermal fuses are already required, in a four-year span between 2013 and 2017, only one death was attributed to smoking on home oxygen.

Along with reducing fatalities, implementing the use of thermal fuses nationwide could save the healthcare industry millions, Reynolds said.

In a case his department handled in August of 2023, two surviving burn victims of a home oxygen therapy fire were faced with $1.2 million in medical expenses.

As both victims were Medicare recipients, Reynolds noted that Medicare could have provided 269,000 thermal fuses across three states for the same cost as the healthcare expenses from a single home oxygen fire.

The invisible toll

While many are quick to blame the victims of these fires, the devastating toll affects more than just the smoker who starts off the catastrophic chain of events.

In many cases, such as the fire earlier this year that killed a 4-year-old child, family members of smokers are injured or killed.

Reynolds said family members of home oxygen fire victims often lament not knowing about thermal fuses sooner. "They say, if I had only known, I would have paid nine bucks," said Reynolds.

For many on Reynolds' work group, the issue is a personal one. Among those in the work group is fire Chief Scott Moore, of the Battlefield Fire Protection District in Missouri. Reynolds and Moore have seen firsthand the devastating impact that home oxygen fires have on families, including their own fire department families.

"This is becoming a firefighter safety issue," said Reynolds.

Thanks to modern advances in fire safety and fire prevention, rural fire departments are rarely faced with rescuing victims trapped inside house fires, Moore said.

In the 35 and 30 years, respectively, that Reynolds and Moore have worked in the rural fire service, the pair has each only seen one successful rescue of a victim from a house fire. More often than not in their communities, occupants are found standing outside of their home by arriving firefighters.

But with the combination of victims in poor health and bad mobility, and the intensity of fires fanned by pure oxygen, many of the attempted rescues Moore and Reynolds see involve home oxygen therapy users, and most do not survive.

That takes a psychological toll on the responders who must go into these fires to attempt a rescue. Despite the intense fire conditions, in the fire service, the saying goes, "risk a little to save a little, risk a lot to save a lot."

Often, those involved in affecting these rescues may be the newest, youngest members in a department. In April of 2022, Reynolds' department responded to a house fire caused by an occupant smoking on home oxygen therapy. The victim was a patient his department was familiar with from countless medical calls to her home as she dealt with respiratory issues, Reynolds said.

Firefighters entered the home, pulling the woman from the fire with burns covering over 50% of her body. She would succumb to those injuries 24 hours later.

In the aftermath of this fire, Reynolds said, the young firefighters suffered an intense psychological impact, with one making an attempt to end his own life and another leaving the fire service altogether.

This fire was the catalyst for Reynolds' involvement, making a promise to his department that he would try to find a way to prevent these incidents for the safety of the community and for the mental health of his firefighters.

In Pennsylvania, when a fatal home oxygen fire took the life of a 4-year-old boy and a 79-year-old man, two young volunteer firefighters, who had arrived on the scene in their personal vehicles, were sent to the hospital with smoke inhalation after climbing through a bedroom window without breathing apparatus in a last-ditch attempt to rescue the trapped child.

"Where are we going to find the next generation of firefighters who are willing to take on these risks?" asked Reynolds.

Engineered solutions to human problems

In the experiences of Reynolds and Moore, people are quick to blame the victim when these fires happen. However, blaming the victim won't stop these fires from happening, they note.

"As a fire official, our goal is to eliminate fires, not judge people for medical issues," Reynolds said.

In doing so, Reynolds' work group has focused not on human intervention, but on an engineering solution to prevent these fires from occurring even when humans behave poorly.

"What we found is that you have to take the human intervention out of solving a problem, and that means engineered solutions," Reynolds said.

"We can solve it," Reynolds added, "we owe it as humankind to make a difference in the world."

Moore echoed this thought, emphasizing the difficulty in changing addictive behavior. "People are going to be people," Moore said, "they're going to find their way. It's not enough to regulate them; let's regulate the device."

Though the thermal fuses may not stop all injuries, such as the initial flash burns, and are not foolproof, they provide another layer of protection to quickly shut off the oxygen before it fuels a catastrophic fire, reducing the chance of a fatal injury.

While the working group advocates for making thermal fuses commonplace, Reynolds said he would like to see equipment manufacturers create cannulas and oxygen tubing that have the thermal fuses built into the tubing, removing another variable from the equation.

"It's not a Pennsylvania problem, it's not a Missouri problem, it's not an Iowa problem, it's a United States problem," said Moore.

"It isn't a cheap problem, but it's a cheap solution," he added.

Harrison Jones is a reporter for The Evening Sun in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Contact him at [email protected].