Two Air France pilots were involved in an in-flight fight and exchanged “inappropriate gestures” while in the cockpit of an A320 en route from Geneva to Paris, the airline confirmed on Monday.
The altercation, which took place in June 2022, led to the suspension of both pilots, who were not named by Air France.
“The incident was resolved quickly without affecting the conduct or safety of the flight, which continued as normal,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement.
“The pilots in question are currently suspended from flying and are awaiting a management decision on the outcome of the incident. Air France reminds you that the safety of its customers and crew is its absolute priority.”
Although the incident took place two months ago, it became public due to a story last week in the French-language Geneva Tribune alleging that there are bigger structural problems with Air France.
THE CNN did not confirm any of the additional claims.
The Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), the French government department that oversees the aviation industry, said it had “issued a safety recommendation on operator compliance with procedures”.
This was not spurred on by the cockpit incident in June. Instead, the recommendation came after an Air France A330 plane traveling from Brazzaville to Paris began to leak fuel and was diverted to land in Chad on December 31, 2021.
The BEA report said pilots failed to follow fuel leak procedures that require the affected engine to be shut down to reduce the risk of fire, resulting in “a substantial reduction in the flight’s margin of safety, the fire was averted by chance.” ”.
This is not an isolated case, BEA said. “Through a number of recent investigations,” they noted “that the crews involved did not, for various reasons, voluntarily or not, carry out certain procedures in a compliant manner,” the agency said in the same report.
Earlier this year, in a separate incident, an Air France plane arriving at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport experienced technical problems and “flight controls instability” during landing.
The Boeing 777 aircraft, which departed New York, successfully landed and no passengers or crew were injured. Air France said its pilots responded appropriately to the situation by circling and making a second landing attempt.
Air France, founded in 1933, is the country’s national airline.
Source: CNN Brasil
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