There are a lot of stories about flights being delayed or canceled because someone was making a joke about safety. It wasn't a passenger making a joke, but instead it was the driver.
The incident took place on the Air France flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Saint-Denis de La Reunion.
An airport agent whispered in a girl's ear that there was a terrorist on the plane. It is unclear if this was an Air France agent or an airport worker.
The child's family told the flight attendants about what the child had said. The flight was canceled after it was triggered by this and had to go through a security check.
This is translated from French to English.
“Due to a suspicion of a malicious act the crew decided, in accordance with the security procedures in place, to interrupt the departure procedure of the plane and to have a security inspection carried out by the police. No real threat was observed during this inspection. The duration of this inspection caused the prescribed time for the engagement of the crews to be reached, consequently, the flight was postponed to July 15, 2022 at 4 p.m. The passengers were disembarked and taken care of by Air France teams for the night.”
The man who made the comment to the passenger was found by police. He said he wasn't aware of the consequences of the joke and that he was just joking with the child.
He will have to appear in court in February of next year for obstructing the movement of an aircraft.
The damage of the incident is estimated by Air France to be around 550,000 euro. The return flight was delayed by around a day and I assume that includes paying out EU261 compensation to a lot of people.
Some people are not good with boundaries or reading the room. It is usually passengers who behave this way in the case of flying. An Air France flight was canceled after an airport agent made a joke about a terrorist on the plane. He didn't know how that joke would go.
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