Flight AF422 from Paris to Bogota took off yesterday 34 minutes late. The Airbus A340-300 with 288 passengers had unspecified technical problems, and on take-off some passengers noticed a smell of burning.

 

About 90 minutes in to the flight, the aircraft plummeted towards the Atlantic Ocean as the burning smell was more pronounced. Soon passengers “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.”

 

One passenger from Sweden described conditions on board, saying “panic took over, the cabin crew were sweating and shouting, and people were crying and praying. It was total panic.”

 

The plane had dived quickly in order to dump fuel prior to making an emergency landing in the Azores Island of Terceira two hours after take-off. Since Portugal is part of the Shengen group of nations, the 50+ Columbian passengers then suffered further trouble. They were not permitted to leave the arrivals lounge because they did not have the relevant documentation. They had to sleep on the floor.

 

The Aviation Herald claims “examination revealed the smoke indication was caused by smoke emanating from a short circuit.”

 

Air France seems to have way more than its share of serious incidents.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/06/air-france-passengers-plane

http://avherald.com/h?article=44bf47fd&opt=0

Air France seems to have way more than its share of serious incidents.

 

I extracted data for the number of fatal events amongst European airlines in 20 years from this site. http://www.planecrashinfo.com/rates.htm

 

Air France 5

Aeroflot 5

Turkey 3 (How can Turkey be European, when 97% of the country is in Asia?)

KLM 1

Lufhansa 1

SAS 2

 

So according to that data, Air France seems to have had more incidents than the rest of Western Europe combined. So they are on my personal no fly list.