Air France suspended two of its pilots for fighting in the cockpit during a Geneva-Paris flight in June. Despite the punch, the flight continued and landed safely and the altercation did not affect the rest of the flight, an airline official said Sunday, emphasizing its commitment to safety. According to a report in Swiss newspaper La Tribune, the pilot and co-pilot had an argument shortly after take-off and grabbed each other by the collars after one apparently hit the other. The cabin crew then intervened and a crew member crossed the flight into the cockpit with the pilots, the report said. News of the fight emerged after France’s aviation investigation agency, BEA, issued a report on Wednesday saying some Air France pilots lacked strict adherence to safety protocols. The report focused on a fuel leak 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 required by 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 and said some pilots react 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’s JFK airport that experienced flight control problems while landing in Paris. After the incident, BEA said, the two pilots “made simultaneous inputs to the controls” during a second attempt. “The captain held the control column in a slightly lowered position while the co-pilot made several, more vigorous, upward inputs,” the report said. 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.
