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AF422 Emergency Landing Azores
Seems like the cabin crew were unprepared for this incident and did nothing to calm the terrified passengers. Given the AF447 tragedy I don't suppose this will help the Air France image in Latin America.
This from the UK Guardian Newspaper Air France passengers speak of terror on plane that plummeted towards sea Passengers on flight from Paris to Bogotá say they thought they were going to die as burning smell filled cabin The Guardian, Tuesday 6 March 2012 Air France passengers say they thought they were going to die after the plane they were travelling on plummeted towards the sea. Passengers on an Air France flight travelling from Paris to Bogotá have told how they thought they were going to die when the plane they were on plummeted towards the Atlantic ocean after a burning smell filled the cabin. Euclides and Rosa Montes, Colombians with British nationality travelling from London to Bogotá via Paris, told the Guardian people on board were "saying their goodbyes to one another" as the plane rapidly descended to within 2,000 feet of the sea to offload fuel. "We looked out of the window and the sea was directly below us. Fuel was pouring out over the wings. We thought we were going to die." Swedish newspaper Expressen quotes Eden Victoria Erlandsson, a passenger on the plane, as saying "panic took over, the cabin crew were sweating and shouting, and people were crying and praying. It was total panic." The flight with hundreds of passengers on board made an emergency landing on the Azores island of Terceira at about 1.30pm on Monday afternoon. After landing on a runway at Lajes airport on the tiny Azorian island, passengers were evacuated via emergency slides amid general chaos. Fire brigades and ambulances were scrambled to the scene. At least 50 of the Colombian nationals on board have been refused permission to enter the Azores as they do not hold the required Shengen visa documentation. They have been told they will have to spend the night sleeping on the floor of the arrivals lounge. After the incident passengers raised concerns about the flight taking off in the first place, after it had been delayed due to unspecified technical problems at Charles de Gaulle airport. After a delay of 34 minutes the flight, AF422, took off from Charles de Gaulle at 11.24am with the smell of burning already apparent upon take off. Two hours into the flight the plane rapidly diverted, turning back to the nearest landing point available. Incident: Air France A343 over Atlantic on Mar 5th 2012, smoke caused by short circuit By Simon Hradecky, created Monday, Mar 5th 2012 21:41Z, last updated Tuesday, Mar 6th 2012 12:33Z An Air France Airbus A340-300, registration F-GLZJ performing flight AF-422 from Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) to Bogota (Colombia) with 274 passengers and 14 crew, was enroute over the Atlantic when the crew received a smoke indication for the lower mobile deck, crew rest area. The flight crew decided to divert to Lajes Airport on Terceira Island, Azores (Portugal) for a safe overweight landing. The passengers disembarked via mobile stairs. Examination revealed the smoke indication was caused by smoke emanating from a short circuit. A replacement Airbus A340-300 registration F-GLZR has been dispatched to Lajes on Mar 6th and is currently estimated to depart Terceira Island at 14:40L Mar 6th and reach Bogota with a delay of 26 hours. The airline's press office said, the fire indication was false, there was no smoke, an investigation is underway to determine why the alarm went off for no reason. Passengers reported an unusual burning odour shortly after takeoff, that had been delayed by about 30 minutes due to some technical issue. About 3 hours into the flight the odour intensified and smoke became visible in the cabin, seemingly emanating from a lavatory. The aircraft dumped fuel while descending towards the Azores Islands. |
"panic took over, the cabin crew were sweating and shouting, and people were crying and praying. It was total panic."
'Seems like the cabin crew were unprepared for this incident and did nothing to calm the terrified passengers.' Bit hard on the cabin crew there.:rolleyes:You would not have been sweating in the same situation of course!The shouting may have been an attempt to regain some order!Maybe they had not be given any information from the flight deck.Pretty scary stuff for all concerned anyway! And how would you go about trying to calm a bunch of fear struck passengers who don,t speak your language ,hence have understood nothing of the P.A.s,who assume that they are going to crash into the atlantic? |
How can anyone give an accurate account when in a total panic? That bit always puzzles me.
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Everything is possible when mass-media are involved. Except telling the difference between the mobile stairs and evacuation slides.
We looked out of the window and the sea was directly below us |
'We looked out of the window and the sea was directly below us'
a lot more comforting than having the sky directly below us; |
Examination revealed the smoke indication was caused by smoke emanating from a short circuit.
The airline's press office said, the fire indication was false, there was no smoke, an investigation is underway to determine why the alarm went off for no reason. So what was it? Smoke or no smoke? |
Reminds me of Monty Python's Flying Sheep - 'they do not so much fly as ... plummet'
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Smoke/Fire warning over the Atlantic on ETOPS. That would certainly get MY sphincter twitching....:eek:
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Smoke/Fire warning over the Atlantic on ETOPS |
Nothing if you're on an A340.
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I think bracebrace means ECAM.
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Fairly tricky to cross the Atlantic without at some point having 'sea directly below' you. Maybe they should have taken the bus/train instead:confused:
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What difference does ETOPS make? |
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I thought it was a A330 so my mistake. I was inferring that smoke/fire over the Atlantic (or any other Ocean) miles from the nearest airport must be one of the worst scenarios ever. At least this time they were reasonably close to a diversion airport.
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Spitoon
Quote: What difference does ETOPS make? Not really my area of knowledge but.....I guess it does tend to reduce the likelihood of there being a conveniently locate runway (or even flat piece of ground) nearby. Non ETOPS has no such restriction, and could fly much further away from 'a conveniently locate runway' :rolleyes: Why the number of engines on this a/c was even thought worthy of comment (330/340) is completely beyond me! :rolleyes: |
Extended range Twin Operations. 330 or 340? It makes a massive difference as aircraft with multiple donks ie A340, have far less restrictions impossed on their additional equipment and maintenance practices. Not to mention the distance that they can be from a suitable diversionary airfield. ETOPS refers to twins, not quads. This is therfor not an ETOPS flight.
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I only wrote ETOPS because it was I thought it had been an A330. WHICHEVER aircraft you're in a Smoke/Fire ECAM plus burning smell is not a nice place to be when you're over the Atlantic miles from an alternate.
Let's get back to the topic shall we? :ok: |
According to the Guardian (London) 'Two hours into the flight the plane rapidly diverted, turning back to the nearest landing point available.'
As TCE is some 1626 statute miles from CDG, this aircraft was obviously a Concorde, so why all the talk of A330/340 ? :} |
I know what it is
emergency slides amid general chaos More seriously, this is where language skills count. Can't cover all bases but surely one flight attendant should be available to speak the languages expected to be used by most of the passengers? |
In regards to the cabin crew, remember this is a French airline we're talking about. Following the rules and common sense aren't really their forte.
With respect to what the pilots did, it sounds like they did everything correctly. Fire indication with no way of confirming whether it's false or not, get the aircaft on the ground ASAP. Which is exactly what they did. No damage and no injuries. Good work! |
Togalk,
Pardon my french, but this is one dumb comment. Does Toronto ring any bell ? Who exactly are you to stigmatize french cabin crew, or any other nationality for that matter ? And you dare talking about common sense ! :ugh: |
'In regards to the cabin crew, remember this is a French airline we're talking about. Following the rules and common sense aren't really their forte.
With respect to what the pilots did, it sounds like they did everything correctly. Fire indication with no way of confirming whether it's false or not, get the aircaft on the ground ASAP. Which is exactly what they did. No damage and no injuries. Good work' Tooland pompous fart |
911slf
More seriously, this is where language skills count. Can't cover all bases but surely one flight attendant should be available to speak the languages expected to be used by most of the passengers? Unfortunately language skills count for dick now .Cost cutting you know.Even if there had been a spannish speaker on board,those Russian ,Chineese etc,who don,t speak french,spanish,or english would have panicked.Not a fault of the cabin crew. Why are you picking on the cabincrew,as far as we know all they did was sweat and shout,things that you would expect them to be doing in this kind of situation.............and I bet they had a far more stressfull time than the flight crew who would be in the cockpit dealing with the situation without 300 odd crazed passengers to deal with. Think it through a bit:= |
What is NOT being discussed is, if there were indications of smoke before and during take-off, why is an Atlantic flight not going back for repairs, especially as there was an issue before departure? The issue of F/A & Cockpit Crew seems small by comparison...
"After the incident passengers raised concerns about the flight taking off in the first place, after it had been delayed due to unspecified technical problems at Charles de Gaulle airport. After a delay of 34 minutes the flight, AF422, took off from Charles de Gaulle at 11.24am with the smell of burning already apparent upon take off. Two hours into the flight the plane rapidly diverted, turning back to the nearest landing point available." |
I cannot believe that an Air France trans atalantic flight did not have a crew member on board who would not have been able to make a PA in either English or Spanish; the flightdeck crew are supposedly level 4.
An emergency, yes - deal with it is the priority but once dealt with a 30 sec PA would not be beyond the realms of possiblity. Poor CRM - and I'm emphasising the Crew Management bit - and that comes from the guy in the LHS. |
After a delay of 34 minutes the flight, AF422, took off from Charles de Gaulle at 11.24am with the smell of burning already apparent upon take off. I tend to ignore self serving facts that have not been validated by an investigating agency. Too much second guessing and judgements on the crews actions without the facts apparant that they were working under. |
It's highly unlikely most passengers could tell the difference between the smell of the galley ovens warming up vs. a cargo fire, n'est-ce pas?
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Colombia was where I first came across passengers clapping when the aircraft landed. That probably says something about how they might react in an emergency.
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Link with local Portuguese news
Link with video of local Portuguese news
Comments from a Spanish-speaking passenger Duas aterragens de emergências hoje no Aeroporto das Lajes (atualizado c/vídeo) - Notícias - RTP Açores |
Looking at the translation it appears there was visible smoke in the cabin. The descent of the aircraft, dumping of fuel and lack of proper communication to passengers must have ignited panic. With passenger phone video becoming more available soon maybe we will get a proper feel for what happened.
Duas aterragens de emergências hoje no Aeroporto das Lajes (atualizado c/vídeo) - Notícias - RTP Açores There was however also today another emergency alert with fire on board. flight AFR442, A343, Orly to Bogota, said emergency fire alarm in the crew rest area (in 42N0 39W) with emergency landed at Lajes. There was very visible smoke in the cabin when he landed. The cause of the fire has not yet been cleared and may have been treated some kind of slow combustion. A combustion may have started in the luggage room. (Antena1 Azores) News video: Nuno Neves, TV News Passengers on an Air France plane forced to make an emergency landing have spoken of people ''crying and screaming'' as they feared it would crash. The AF422 flight from Paris to the Colombian capital, Bogota, made a sudden descent and had to land on the island of Terceira in the Azores on Monday. Passenger Eden Victoria Erlandsson said there was panic amongst both passengers and cabin crew. Air France are in damage limitation mode here with the Lat Am media trying to play down what was a poorly handled incident aft of the flight deck. |
Am I missing something? I can't see any mention of a lack of language skills. It seems to have crept into the thread, and done a "Topsy" (just growed)
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Air France has a different take on the story.
The airline said the flight had a technical problem after a smoke alarm sounded in the cabin crew rest area. A statement read: “The cabin crew put on the breathing protection masks to inspect the rest area and no smoke was detected.” It added that the captain decided to divert to the nearest airport as a “precautionary measure” because the alarm had sounded. The plane dumped fuel in order to land without the jet being overweight - a standard procedure, it added. Air France denies reports of panic on board and says that passengers did not leave the aircraft on emergency slides. “The crew informed the passengers in French, English and Spanish, of the reasons for the diversion. “The crew reported no injuries, illness or panic among the passengers, who left the aircraft normally using both of the airport’s jetways.” Following an investigation by the airport fire department on the ground, “no trace of smoke or any other irregularity was found on the aircraft,” the statement added. The 274 passengers on board were put up in overnight accommodation and continued their journeys on Tuesday afternoon (local time) on another Air France A340 jet. |
Good to see journos still using.... The Lazy Journalists Plane Story Generator Classic! Thanks for sharing :ok: |
Am I missing something? I can't see any mention of a lack of language skills. It seems to have crept into the thread, and done a "Topsy" (just growed) The passenger who is interviewed states (my interpretation for those too lazy to watch the video): "There was no information. The cabin crew didn't speak English. They said they are a French Airline and only speak French". So language skills DO seem to be an issue. :ugh: - GY |
So language skills DO seem to be an issue. DG800 |
By that you're referring to some of the passengers not being able to speak any French, right? The International Civil Aviation Organisation has decreed that from 1 January 2008 all Air Traffic Controllers and Flight Crew Members engaged in or in contact with international flights must be proficient in the English language as a general spoken medium and not simply have a proficiency in standard ICAO Radio Telephony Phraseology.
- GY |
It's my assumption that this does NOT extend to the flight attendants....? Personally, when I travel to any country where English (or German, or Italian) is not spoken as an official language, I do not expect anybody to be able to speak English (or German, or Italian) just because it would please me if they did. I wouldn't also claim that "no information was given" just because I am not able to understand the language the information was actually given in. That would be a bit too egocentric even for someone as myself. :p Cheers, DG800 |
And you would be absolutely correct in that assumption. There is no requirement, AFAIK, for flight attendants to attain any ICAO proficiency level whatsoever, as they are obviously not part of the flight crew and could just speak an obscure Chinese dialect as far as ICAO is concerned. I'm sure that is actually the case for many f/a in mainland China. Personally, when I travel to any country where English (or German, or Italian) is not spoken as an official language, I do not expect anybody to be able to speak English (or German, or Italian) just because it would please me if they did. I wouldn't also claim that "no information was given" just because I am not able to understand the language the information was actually given in. That would be a bit too egocentric even for someone as myself. "There was no information. The cabin crew didn't speak English. They said they are a French Airline and only speak French". |
Job well done, guys ! :ok:
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