A lightning flight that passengers will remember. While it had left the ground at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport on Friday January 3 for only 17 minutes, an Airbus A318 was forced to turn around. The cause is “a cabin pressurization malfunction”, specifies an Air France press release.
Pressurization in an aircraft is essential to ensure the comfort and safety of passengers and crew at high altitudes, ensuring they have sufficient oxygen supply. Without it, they are at risk of symptoms of hypoxia, ranging from dizziness to death.
In the event of depressurization, oxygen masks are automatically deployed to allow those on board to breathe until the aircraft reaches a safe altitude of minus 10,000 feet.
A video shared on The plane quickly descended “to 8,000 feet before landing safely.” No injuries were reported.
“Air France crews are regularly trained to manage this type of situation in accordance with the manufacturer's procedures,” specifies the airline on oxygen in the cabin because the automatic mask release altitude had not yet been reached. »
The plane landed at Paris-Charles de Gaulle at 10:12 p.m. to carry out technical checks. “Flight AF1448 as well as return AF1449 have been canceled,” adds Air France, regretting the inconvenience caused, but recalling “that the safety of its customers and crews is its absolute imperative.”
This is not the first time that this type of incident has occurred. Last May, a flight connecting Montreal to Lyon was forced to turn around after a three-hour flight due to a pressurization problem. In June, a Korean Air Boeing 737 Max 8 suddenly fell more than 8,200 meters in fifteen minutes after a breakdown in the depressurization system.
The incident left 17 injured. Some suffered from stress-related hyperventilation, while others complained of ear pain from the sudden change in pressure, as well as nosebleeds.
