Summary
- Air France Airbus A321 evacuated at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport as a consequence of heavy fuel leak from each wings. No injuries reported.
- Passengers instructed to depart hand luggage and private belongings behind during swift evacuation. Emergency personnel on site.
- Incident involved a 21-year-old Airbus A321-200 registered F-GTAK, not the primary safety emergency for this aircraft. Delayed five hours.
An Air France Airbus A321 was evacuated on the bottom at Paris-Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) after a fuel incident on October 12. Upon the incident’s discovery, the captain shut the aircraft off and safely evacuated the crew and passengers off of the aircraft. The plane was promptly met by emergency personnel. No injuries have been reported in association with this incident.
Safety evacuation
The flight in query was Air France flight AF1390. The flight, operated on a 21-year-old Airbus A321-200 registered F-GTAK, was scheduled to depart Paris-Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) at 11:20 (local time). It was intended to reach at Istanbul International Airport (IST) at 15:50 (local time). Just before pushback from the gate, the captain noticed a heavy fuel leak from each wings, prompting an evacuation of the aircraft.
Passengers were instructed to rapidly leave the aircraft via the boarding bridge back into the terminal. In consequence of the evacuation, passengers were instructed to depart their hand luggage and private belongings behind on the aircraft and swiftly departed. Passenger Tom Roek was in a position to film the incident and the swift evacuation of all passengers and crew off the plane.
Once emergency services rushed to the aircraft, it was clear to everyone that the aircraft couldn’t be operated on the Paris- Istanbul service. Due to this fact, Air France deployed one other plane for the scheduled service – one other Airbus A321-200 bearing the registration F-GTAU. The flight departed Paris CDG at 16:46 (local time) and touched down in Istanbul at 20:55 (local time), accumulating a delay of 5 hours and five minutes.
What can we know in regards to the involved aircraft?
The virtually 22-year-old Airbus A321-212 registered F-GTAK was the aircraft that suffered the incident. The plane has a complete capability of 212 passengers in an all-economy class cabin in a 3-3 configuration and is powered by two CFM International CFM56-5B1 engines. The Airbus A321 F-GTAK operated its first flight on December 19, 2001. The aircraft was initially delivered to Air France on January 18, 2002, and operated for the carrier until March 18, 2018, when it was transferred to Air France’s low-cost subsidiary Joon, where it flew for the low-cost subsidiary until June 26, 2019, when it returned to operations with Air France. Although Air France and its low-cost subsidiary Joon have been the one operators of this aircraft, the French flag carrier doesn’t own the jet but operates it on lease from AerCap.