Two Air France pilots have been suspended after physical altercations in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight in June, an Air France official said on Sunday. The flight continued and landed safely and the dispute did not affect the rest of the flight, the official said, emphasizing the airline’s commitment to safety. Switzerland’s La Tribune reported that the pilot and co-pilot had an argument shortly after takeoff and grabbed each other by the collars after one apparently hit the other. The cabin crew intervened and a crew member walked the flight into the cockpit with the pilots, the report said. News of the row came after France’s aviation investigation agency, BEA, issued a report on Wednesday saying some Air France pilots lacked rigor in following procedures during safety incidents. It focused on a fuel spill on an Air France flight from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, to Paris in December 2020, when the pilots changed the plane’s route but did not cut power to the engine or land as soon as possible, as the spill procedure requires . 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 and said some pilots act based on their own analysis of the situation rather than safety protocols. Air France said it was carrying out a security audit in response. He pledged to follow the BEA’s recommendations, which include allowing pilots to study their flights afterward and tightening training manuals on following the procedure. The airline noted that it flies thousands of flights every day and the report mentions only four such safety incidents. Air France pilot unions insisted that safety is paramount for all pilots and defended the pilots’ actions in emergency situations. The BEA also investigated an incident in April involving an Air France flight from New York’s JFK airport that experienced flight control problems on approach to land in Paris. The Associated Press
