Air France: Report of Radicalized Staff Sabotaging Planes Is ‘Unfounded Rumors’

Air France officials strongly denied assertions in an investigative report claiming that radicalized employees have engaged in systematic sabotage of the flag carrier’s fleet.

The serious accusations leveled by the Paris investigative and weekly satirical newspaper Canard Enchainé created a fair amount of anxiety for both the traveling public and a substantial headache for Air France leadership. The newspaper’s report claims that French intelligence officials are scrambling to get to the bottom of a series of troubling incidents involving Air France aircraft at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG).

Unnamed French intelligence sources have reportedly been tracking a number of incidents in which radicalized employees have attempted to interfere with Air France planes and operations. Excerpts of the report published by The Telegraph allege that an Air France employee disabled a critical engine relay on more than one aircraft. That accused saboteur is said to have since fled to Jordan.

In other instances, employees with sympathies towards radical Islamic groups are accused of damaging safety devices while Air France planes were in maintenance hangers. Other less serious acts of aggression include vandalism in which the words “Allahu Akbar” were scrawled on fuel caps (prompting one pilot to refuse to fly pending an in-depth investigation). There was also a reported instance in which the electronic maps displayed for passengers on one flight showed Israel missing from the globe, instead being replaced by a nation with the moniker of “The Gaza Strip.”

Air France officials have strenuously denied the charges outlined in the exposé, calling the assertions “false information” and “unfounded rumors.” A source at the airline told The Local that planes tagged with the graffiti “Allahu Akbar” were likely returning from destinations in North Africa. The source added that the report of a Muslim ground crew member refusing to guide a flight with a female captain to the gate was simply an “urban legend” reported as fact. “No malicious act on a commercial Air France flight has ever been confirmed or even identified,” the airline said in an official statement.

Concerns over security threats posed by radicalized French citizens have grown in the wake of a string of high-profile terrorist attacks within the country’s borders. French officials revoked the credentials from more than 70 workers at CDG and Paris Orly Airport (ORY) in December of last year. Heightened security following the November 13 terror attacks in Paris revealed that at least some of those workers had ties to known radical groups with several badged airport workers even appearing on government watch lists.

[Photo: Getty]