France’s aviation research agency said some pilots lacked rigor in respecting safety protocols.
Air France suspended two of its pilots for fighting in the cockpit during a Geneva-Paris flight in June.
Despite the fistfight, the flight continued and landed safely, and the dispute did not affect the rest of the flight, an airline official said on Sunday, emphasizing its commitment to safety.
According to a report in the Swiss newspaper La Tribune, the pilot and co-pilot got into a dispute shortly after takeoff, grabbing each other’s necks after one apparently hit the other.
Cabin crew intervened and a crew member spent the flight in the cockpit with the pilots, according to the report.
News of the fight emerged after France’s aviation research agency, BEA, issued a report on Wednesday saying some Air France pilots lack rigor in respecting safety protocols.
The report focused on a fuel leak on an Air France flight from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to Paris in December 2020, when pilots diverted the plane but failed to cut engine power and land as soon as possible, as required. The procedure.
The plane landed safely in Chad, but the BEA report warned that the engine could have caught fire.
He cited three similar cases between 2017 and 2022, saying some pilots are reacting by personally analyzing the situation rather than following safety procedures.
The BEA also investigated an incident in April involving an Air France flight from New York City’s JFK airport that suffered flight control problems as it approached its landing in Paris.
After the incident, BEA said, the two pilots “made simultaneous checkpoint entries” during a second attempt.
“The captain held the control column in a slightly nose-down position while the co-pilot made several steeper nose-up entries,” the report says.
Air France said it is carrying out a safety audit in response. He has pledged to follow the BEA’s recommendations, which include allowing pilots to study their flights afterward and making training manuals more stringent about procedural compliance.
The airline noted that it operates thousands of daily flights and the report mentions only four such security incidents.
Air France pilots’ unions insisted that safety is paramount for all pilots and defended pilots’ actions during emergency situations.
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