The airline Air France suspended two pilots who got into a fight in June inside the cabin of a plane flying from Geneva (Switzerland) to Paris (France), as reported on Sunday.
The French newspaper La Tribune reported that the pilot and co-pilot grabbed each other's shirt collars and one hit the other after an argument shortly after takeoff.
The flight attendants separated them and one of them remained in the cabin for the rest of the flight to prevent them from fighting again, according to the aforementioned newspaper.
The flight suffered no further setbacks and landed safely in the French capital, according to the airline, which highlighted its commitment to passenger safety.
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2019. Christophe Ena / AP
The incident came to light after a report published on Wednesday by the French air traffic control agency, BEA, detailing several incidents in which Air France pilots have not respected safety protocols.
On a flight to Paris from Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo, in December 2020, an Air France plane suffered a fuel leak.
The pilots diverted the aircraft, but did not cut power to the turbine or land as soon as possible, as required by regulations.
The plane arrived without incident in Chad,
but the BEA report warned that a fire may have occurred.
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The report mentioned three similar cases between 2017 and 2022 in which the pilots acted according to their own criteria instead of following the established protocols.
The BEA also investigated an incident in April involving an Air France flight that had trouble communicating with flight control officers at New York's JFK airport.
Air France announced an audit following the report and promised to follow the BEA's recommendations, such as having pilots review their flights and reformulating training manuals to clarify that the rules must be complied with.
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The airline noted that it operates thousands of daily flights and the report mentions only four such security incidents.
Air France pilots' unions have insisted that safety is paramount for all their members and defended their actions in emergency situations.