Safety concerns place pilots for Air France under scrutiny
PARIS — Air France pilots are under scrutiny after a series of incidents that have raised concerns over safety protocols on flights operated by the French flagship carrier, prompting aviation investigators to reprimand the airline last week.
The latest incident to come to light involved two pilots who were suspended after a physical fight in the cockpit of an A320 plane in flight from Geneva to Paris in June, a spokesperson for Air France said this week, confirming a report in the French newspaper La Tribune. He added that the flight landed safely.
News of the fight has come amid broader concerns about flight safety at Air France. A few days ago, French investigators issued a report saying the airline’s pilots lacked rigor in following safety procedures.
Investigators said several recent incidents suggested “that a certain culture has been established among some Air France crews, favoring a propensity to underestimate the benefits of a strict application of procedures for safety.”
The dispute between the two pilots on the Geneva-paris flight began shortly after takeoff when one refused to follow an instruction, according to La Tribune. After one of them reportedly hit the other, the two grabbed each other’s collars. Cabin crew quickly intervened, and one crew member spent the rest of the flight in the cockpit to prevent the fight from resuming, the article added.
Air France spokesperson Mathieu Guillot confirmed that the two pilots had exchanged “inappropriate gestures” in what he described as a physical altercation, but he did not elaborate. He added that the suspended pilots “are awaiting a managerial decision on the outcome and treatment of the incident.”
The report on Air France published last week by the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, a French government agency that investigates aviation accidents and incidents, warned of poorly observed safety procedures by pilots and issued recommendations to address the situation.
The report focused on a fuel leak on an Air France flight from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, to Paris in December 2020, which forced the plane to land in Chad. The agency said that the plane’s pilots did not rigorously follow procedures for a fuel leak and failed to shut down the leaking engine to reduce fire risk.
The pilots told investigators that they were worried that turning off the engine in the middle of the night could lead to complications during the landing, and believed that they had enough fuel left to divert the flight to Chad.
But not cutting power to the affected engine resulted in a less safe flight and that the pilots avoided a fire “by chance,” the report said.
The aviation agency said “the recurrence of investigations” on previous incidents that similarly involved pilots ignoring safety procedures showed there was “an adjustment of the procedures or even a deliberate violation of them leading to a reduction of the safety margins” at Air France.