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The ordeal left passengers breathless.
A pilot on an Air France flight had to enact an emergency landing after a dangerous loss in pressure prompted the flight crew to deploy oxygen masks.
The Airbus A318 had been flying from Paris, France to Barcelona, Spain on the morning of Friday, January 3. Disaster struck after the aircraft experienced a major drop in pressure around 17 minutes into the flight.
Accompanying footage shows the aftermath of the incident, in which shaken passengers are seen muttering in hushed tones with the oxygen masks dangling in front of their faces.
Crew members declared an emergency situation, prompting the pilot to return to Charles De Gaulle airport in the French capital, landing around 40 minutes after they’d originally departed.
Both that flight and the return flight were canceled so crews could enact emergency inspections of the aircraft.
Fortunately, no passengers or crew members were injured during the malfunction and were rebooked on alternate flights to their original destinations, Aviation 24 reported.
An Air France spokesperson addressed the fiasco in a statement, claiming that the masks were triggered preemptively as a precaution because the “automatic mask drop altitude had not yet been reached.”
“Air France crews are trained regularly to manage this type of situation in accordance with the manufacturer’s procedures,” they assured passengers. “Air France regrets the inconvenience due to this situation and reminds that the safety of its customers and crew members is its absolute imperative.”
Investigators are conducting a probe to try and learn what caused the depressurization problem.
In a more serious incident in September, multiple passengers on a Delta Airlines flight out of Salt Lake City, Utah suffered ruptured eardrums and bloody noses after the aircraft encountered pressurization issues at 10,000 feet.
