PARIS, France
Two Air France pilots have been suspended after physically fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight in June, an Air France has official said on Sunday. The flight continued and landed safely, and the dispute didn’t affect the rest of the flight, the official said, stressing the airline’s commitment to safety.
Switzerland’s La Tribune
reported that the pilot and co-pilot had a dispute shortly after take-off and
grabbed each other by their collars after one apparently hit the other.
Cabin crew intervened and one
crew member spent the flight in the cockpit with the pilots, the report said.
News of the fight emerged
after France’s air investigation agency, BEA, issued a report on Wednesday
saying that some Air France pilots lack rigour in respecting procedures during
safety incidents.
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 did not 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 were acting based on their
own analysis of the situation instead of safety protocols.
Air France said it was
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.
The airline noted that it flew
thousands of flights daily and the report mentioned 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.
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