By John Ikani
Two Air France pilots have been suspended after physically fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight in June, an Air France official said on Sunday.
Swiss news outlet La Tribune quoted the official as saying the pilot and co-pilot had a dispute Mid-flight and exchanged blows as they flew an Airbus A320 from Geneva to Paris in June.
Cabin crew intervened and one crew member spent the rest of the flight in the cockpit with the pilots until they landed safely.
The disclosure comes days after a report published by France’s air investigation body BEA on Tuesday that the airline had a culture which lacked rigour when it came to safety procedures.
The report was centered on a fuel leak that occurred on an Air France flight in December 2020 from Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo, to Paris when pilots redirected the aircraft but did not cut power to the engine or land the aircraft as quickly as feasible, as the leak procedure required.
Despite the BEA report’s warning that the engine might have caught fire, the plane made a safe landing in Chad.
It stated that some pilots are acting based on their own analysis of the circumstance rather than following safety rules and highlighted three instances between 2017 and 2022 that were comparable.
In response, Air France stated that it is conducting a safety audit. It vowed to abide by the BEA’s recommendations, which include enabling pilots to review their flights afterwards and tightening up the instruction manuals’ adherence requirements.
The airline pointed out that although it operates thousands of flights every day, only four such safety events are included in the study.
