An Air France Airbus A318 was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing just 17 minutes after taking off from Paris. A pressurization malfunction would be to blame. The crew reacted quickly to ensure the safety of passengers. What exactly happened?
An unusual and stressful situation occurred on Friday, January 3. Just 17 minutes after leaving Paris, an Air France plane bound for Barcelona was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport. An incident that raises questions about aviation safety and emergency procedures.
A Paris-Barcelona flight interrupted mid-flight
The Airbus A318, registered F-GUGD, was to operate the AF1448 route between the French and Catalan capitals this Friday evening. He took off from Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport at 9:45 p.m. But very quickly, around a quarter of an hour after leaving the ground, the crew detected a problem and made the decision to return to land immediately.
According to a source close to the matter, the captain reported a malfunction in the cabin pressurization system. A serious technical incident which can have dramatic consequences on the health of passengers and crew if not managed in time. Pressurization makes it possible to maintain bearable atmospheric conditions for the body despite the high flight altitude.
An emergency procedure triggered
Faced with this failure, the pilots immediately applied the emergency descent procedure. They began a turn to turn around while rapidly losing altitude. The oxygen masks then automatically fell into the cabin to compensate for the lack of pressure.
According to our information, the landing took place without incident at 10:12 p.m., barely 30 minutes after takeoff. The aircraft was taken care of by ground teams and airport firefighters as a precaution. More fear than harm fortunately, no injuries were reported among the occupants of the plane.
Passengers supported
The travelers were disembarked and taken care of in the terminal. Air France has organized to reroute them to Barcelona as quickly as possible. The return flight which was to be operated by the same aircraft was also canceled.
An Air France spokesperson was keen to point out that “ the safety of customers and crews is the absolute imperative » of the company. The aircraft will remain on the ground while the cause of this failure is precisely identified and the necessary repairs are carried out. It will only fly again after obtaining the green light from the maintenance teams.
What are the risks in the event of depressurization?
Airliners typically fly at altitudes between 10,000 and 12,000 meters. At this height, the atmospheric pressure is very low, as is the amount of oxygen available. Conditions incompatible with life which therefore require artificial pressurization of the cabin.
In the event of a sudden loss of this pressurization, passengers and crew can suffer from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) which causes dizziness, headaches, visual disturbances or even loss of consciousness and heart problems. Another risk: strong variations in pressure can cause pain in the eardrums, or even irreversible damage to the inner ear.
The emergency procedure, with rapid descent to a breathable altitude and use of oxygen masks, aims precisely to protect the occupants of the plane while they land. A fortunately rare scenario, modern aircraft being equipped with very reliable systems.
Significant precedents
Although fatal depressurizations are almost non-existent in modern commercial aviation, a few accidents have left their mark in the past. The most famous is undoubtedly that of Helios Airways Flight 522 in 2005. A maintenance error led to an undetected depressurization, plunging passengers and crew into unconsciousness. The plane continued to fly on autopilot before crashing due to lack of fuel, killing 121 people.
More recently, in April 2018, a woman was partially sucked out of the plane after a window broke on a Southwest Airlines flight in the United States. An extremely rare incident which led to an explosive depressurization and the death of the passenger.
Dramas that remain exceptional. The incident on the Air France flight last Friday shows, on the contrary, the effectiveness of the safety procedures and the responsiveness of the crews in responding to this type of failure, fortunately without consequences this time. An investigation must determine the exact causes of this malfunction to prevent it from happening again.
Passengers supported
The travelers were disembarked and taken care of in the terminal. Air France has organized to reroute them to Barcelona as quickly as possible. The return flight which was to be operated by the same aircraft was also canceled.
An Air France spokesperson was keen to point out that “ the safety of customers and crews is the absolute imperative » of the company. The aircraft will remain on the ground while the cause of this failure is precisely identified and the necessary repairs are carried out. It will only fly again after obtaining the green light from the maintenance teams.
What are the risks in the event of depressurization?
Airliners typically fly at altitudes between 10,000 and 12,000 meters. At this height, the atmospheric pressure is very low, as is the amount of oxygen available. Conditions incompatible with life which therefore require artificial pressurization of the cabin.
In the event of a sudden loss of this pressurization, passengers and crew can suffer from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) which causes dizziness, headaches, visual disturbances or even loss of consciousness and heart problems. Another risk: strong variations in pressure can cause pain in the eardrums, or even irreversible damage to the inner ear.
The emergency procedure, with rapid descent to a breathable altitude and use of oxygen masks, aims precisely to protect the occupants of the plane while they land. A fortunately rare scenario, modern aircraft being equipped with very reliable systems.
Significant precedents
Although fatal depressurizations are almost non-existent in modern commercial aviation, a few accidents have left their mark in the past. The most famous is undoubtedly that of Helios Airways Flight 522 in 2005. A maintenance error led to an undetected depressurization, plunging passengers and crew into unconsciousness. The plane continued to fly on autopilot before crashing due to lack of fuel, killing 121 people.
More recently, in April 2018, a woman was partially sucked out of the plane after a window broke on a Southwest Airlines flight in the United States. An extremely rare incident which led to an explosive depressurization and the death of the passenger.
Dramas that remain exceptional. The incident on the Air France flight last Friday shows, on the contrary, the effectiveness of the safety procedures and the responsiveness of the crews in responding to this type of failure, fortunately without consequences this time. An investigation must determine the exact causes of this malfunction to prevent it from happening again.
