Fight or flight? Airline pilots are suspended amid claims they traded blows in cockpit brawl
- The Air France flight, an Airbus A320, was going from Geneva to Paris in June
- Cabin crew were forced to break up the brawl, which a spokesman condemned
- The row was resolved but a spokesman said the pilots are under investigation
Two Air France pilots have been suspended after coming to blows in a cockpit fracas.
The fight between the pilot and co-pilot broke out shortly after the Airbus A320 took off on a flight between Geneva and Paris in June.
Cabin crew were forced to break up the brawl, with one pilot remaining on the flight deck for the rest of the 75 minute journey.
A spokesman for the airline described the confrontation as ‘totally inappropriate behaviour’.
Two Air France pilots have been suspended after coming to blows in a cockpit fracas and the fight between the pilot and co-pilot broke out shortly after the Airbus A320 took off
The row was resolved and the flight continued as normal, the spokesman said. The pilots are under investigation.
Details of the fight emerged days after the publication of a report by France’s civil aviation authority which found some of Air France’s 4,000 pilots ‘adopted a culture of underestimating the importance of strictly applying safety procedures’.
It focused on a fuel leak on an Air France flight from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to Paris in December 2020, when pilots rerouted the plane but didn’t cut power to the engine or land as soon as possible, as leak procedure requires.
The plane landed safely in Chad, but the BEA report warned that the engine could have caught fire.
It mentioned three similar cases between 2017 and 2022, and said some pilots are acting based on their own analysis of the situation instead of safety protocols.
Air France said it is carrying out a safety audit in response. It pledged to follow the BEA’s recommendations, which include allowing pilots to study their flights afterward and making training manuals stricter about sticking to procedure.
Cabin crew were forced to break up the brawl, with one pilot remaining on the flight deck for the rest of the 75 minute journey
The airline noted that it flies thousands of flights daily and the report mentions only four such safety incidents.
Air France pilots unions have insisted that security is paramount to all pilots and defended pilot actions during emergency situations.
The BEA also investigated an incident in April involving an Air France flight from New York’s JFK airport that suffered flight control problems on approach to its landing in Paris.
Source: Read Full Article
