Air France flight forced to make emergency U-turn after pressurization problem

AVIATION – Fear for passengers on an Air France Paris-Barcelona flight. On the evening of Friday January 3, they saw their Airbus A318 turn around just 17 minutes after takeoff. A pressurization malfunction was in fact noted on this flight departing from Roissy CDG. No injuries were reported, but for safety reasons, the plane returned to its departure airport to carry out technical checks and the flight was finally canceled, reports BFMTV this Saturday, January 4.

Loss of pressurization is an emergency situation that can potentially become serious. Maintaining appropriate cabin pressure allows the aircraft to fly at high altitudes without the effects of lower atmospheric pressure causing physiological risks to passengers and crew members.

In a video shot by one of the passengers and posted on social media, we can see the oxygen masks falling and the travelers placing them on their faces.

On X, Air France confirmed the incident and explained that the company's crews “are regularly trained to handle this type of situation in accordance with the manufacturer’s procedures”.

Two flights canceled, customers rerouted

It is specified that it was precisely the crew who initiated the fall of the masks, because the altitude at which they were released had not yet been reached. The plane landed safely at the Roissy airport at 10:12 p.m. “ Customers were taken care of by Air France teams at the airport and will be rerouted to Barcelona as soon as possible “, wrote the company in its post.

This type of problem has already happened on other flights, such as last June when a Korean Air Boeing 737 Max 8, which was leaving for Taichung (Taiwan), suddenly fell more than 8,200 meters in the space of fifteen minutes due to a pressure problem.

Of the 125 people on board, 17 were injured and a few were taken to hospital. Some suffered from stress-related hyperventilation, while others had nosebleeds or ear pain.

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