High-altitude brawl: when conflicts on board an airplane put flights at risk

The FlyDubai flight, en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30, first transmitted a general emergency code. The cause of the alarm was a physical clash between the pilots, after which the airliner abruptly lost altitude and eventually landed safely in Saudi Tabuk. Eyewitnesses told of screams, blood, and a man with a knife in the cockpit. However, this situation is not the only one: the history of civil aviation knows of other cases when conflicts within the crew turned an ordinary flight into an emergency situation. More about them can be found in the Izvestia article.

The Air France pilots' fight

In June 2022, a conflict occurred in the cockpit of an Airbus A320 Air France, operating a flight between Geneva and Paris. Shortly after takeoff, the commander and the co-pilot quarreled, after which it came to physical violence. It is reported that they grabbed each other by the collars, and one of the pilots allegedly hit the other, after which the flight attendants heard the noise — they had to enter the cockpit and separate their colleagues. After that, one of the cabin crew members stayed with the pilots until the end of the flight to prevent a new skirmish. The plane landed safely, and both parties to the conflict were suspended from flights.

A quarrel over food at an altitude of 11 km

In July 2018, two Iraqi Airways pilots got into a fight during a flight from Mashhad, Iran, to Baghdad. There were 157 passengers on board, and the plane was traveling at an altitude of about 37,000 feet — more than 11 km. The reason turned out to be almost domestic: the conflict began over a tray of food. According to the co-pilot, the commander forbade the flight attendant to bring him food without his permission, the altercation escalated into a physical clash. A security officer on board had to separate the pilots. The plane reached Baghdad without incident, and the Iraqi Ministry of Transport launched an investigation and suspended both pilots from flights.

The pilots quarreled, and the cockpit was left without them.

The incident on Jet Airways flight 9W119 from London to Mumbai on January 1, 2018 looked even more dangerous. There were 324 passengers and 14 crew members on board the Boeing 777. During the flight, there was a conflict between the two pilots: a man hit the female commander, after which she got out of the cockpit. Later, the co—pilot also left the cockpit, trying to return a colleague, and for a while she was left without pilots. The plane continued its flight and landed safely in Mumbai.

The consequences for the crew were serious. Jet Airways fired both pilots, and the Indian aviation regulator DGCA suspended their flight licenses for five years after an investigation, stating that leaving the cockpit without pilots posed a threat to flight safety.

A fight between pilots and flight attendants at an altitude of 9 km

In October 2009, the conflict engulfed not only the pilots, but also the cabin crew of Air India flight IC-884 from Sharjah to Delhi via Lucknow. The quarrel, which began during pre-flight training, continued in the air and at an altitude of about 30,000 feet escalated into a physical clash between the pilots and flight attendants. The parties then brought various charges against each other, including assault and violation of security rules.

Despite the conflict, the plane completed the flight safely. After the incident, the airline launched an internal investigation: some of the crew members were suspended from flights, and the Delhi police dealt with the statements of the participants in the fight.

When the conflict in the cockpit became one of the disaster factors

A physical fight is not the only option for a dangerous conflict between pilots. On July 28, 2010, an Airbus A321 operated by Pakistani Airblue, ABQ-202 flight from Karachi to Islamabad, crashed into the Margalla Hills on approach. All 152 people on board were killed — 146 passengers and six crew members.

The investigation showed that the tension in the cabin arose long before the crash. During the climb, the commander tested the co-pilot's knowledge for about an hour, talking to him in a humiliating and harsh manner. The investigators concluded that as a result, the co-pilot became insecure and passive and stopped aggressively challenging the commander's actions. In the official report, this atmosphere is described as a classic failure of Crew Resource Management, a system of interaction and responsibility sharing within the crew.

The conflict itself was not the only cause of the disaster: the investigation also found serious violations of the approach procedure, loss of situational awareness and ignoring warnings about approaching the ground. But the investigators separately stressed that the psychological barrier created by the commander prevented the co-pilot from intervening in time and taking control.