The alert went off suddenly, four hours into the flight. The meal had just been served to the passengers of Air France flight AF021, which connected Los Angeles to Paris Charles de Gaulle on Thursday, when the lights went out, recalls Jean, one of the approximately 300 passengers on the flight, back from vacation in California.
“I personally thought it was to encourage us to sleep,” he explains, before the crew reported that the videos on the screens available were no longer accessible and that the Wi-Fi was no longer available. was also cut. Then the red emergency exit lights come on and the captain announces that the plane will finally land at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.
An impromptu stop for the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200, after a “hot smell” was spotted in the cabin, explains Air France, contacted by Le Parisien. After switching off electrical appliances, video players and lighting, as required by procedure, the landing was decided as a precautionary measure, following “manufacturer and company procedures”.
If the plane “landed normally” around 10 p.m. local time (4 a.m. in Paris), the descent may have caused some cold sweats among the passengers, who had to quickly leave the plane.
“Run, run”
First specifying that the Boeing was going to undergo “checks”, the captain finally told the travelers that they had to disembark, the procedures having to take time, relates Jean. Then the tempo suddenly accelerated. While the passengers thought the alert had been resolved, “he told us that we were going to disembark through the front left door. Everyone started to take their cabin luggage and go down quietly, when suddenly he shouted: PNC rapid descent Then Urgent immediate descent. Everyone started running,” he rewinds.
“The staff managed well despite the stress. It happened very quickly, not really time to panic or think,” adds the passenger, who shared photos of the device online. It was only at this moment that he discovered a hot smell, emanating according to him “from the front of the device”.
“Right after my row got up, the flight attendants in the back started yelling: Run, run, go, gowhich caused everyone who remained on the plane to panic,” said another Mexican chino passenger, who did not wish to give her name.
“We all tried to run away as quickly as possible, while they kept yelling at us to run. I thought the plane was on fire or that it was going to explode,” she says, also explaining that she smelled “a little smoke” when she was running.
For its part, Air France admits that the exit may have been “stressful” for some travelers, but assures that it was not a classic emergency evacuation. “It’s only a quick disembarkation, as a precaution. The passengers were able to collect their cabin baggage and exit via the gangway,” underlines the group’s press service. The plane was able to take the time to be taken to its parking point, escorted by the firefighters, before disembarking.
No “link” with the Boeing diverted on Tuesday
Once on the tarmac, the passengers were able to get a meal and a drink, and the battle began for the airline and airport teams to quickly find them accommodation, despite the late hour. The passenger interviewed, who was traveling to Paris with her companion, was able to obtain a place in a hotel after three hours. Less fortunate, Jean was among the last to be able to get a room, only around 4 a.m., after six hours of waiting.
“Given the time and the number of passengers, the processing may have taken some time,” the company concedes. Contacted this Friday noon, she ensures that all travelers still on site are now accommodated. Some have already left Montreal, others have been offered other flights to reach Paris this Friday or Saturday at most.
For the moment, the cause of the alert has not been identified and maintenance teams are still hard at work, specifies Air France. However, this incident occurs just two days after a very similar incident on a Paris-Seattle of the French company on Tuesday, also diverted following a “hot smell” to a Canadian airport already, that of Iqaluit this time. Here again, the aircraft was a Boeing, but the group has not yet established “any link” between the two events and points out that these cases remain very rare.
However, for the passengers, this unexpected diversion disrupted certain plans. The Mexican chino traveler, who was going to Paris for the second time, will miss the concert of American star Taylor Swift, which she was to attend at La Défense Arena this Friday. “I have to stay in Montreal, and I can’t get any reimbursement on hotels/concert tickets that cost thousands of dollars,” she lamented on the X network, calling out Air France.
“I’m very frustrated,” she whispers to the Parisian, claiming to have received no response from the company’s teams for a long time to find a fallback solution on another flight. As for Jean, he first intends to rest after this long night of waiting and “struggle”. “To make matters worse, our checked suitcases were forgotten in Los Angeles…” slips the traveler.
