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File photo Christophe Ena/AP/Press Association Images

Air France passengers asked to chip in for fuel

Passengers rounded up around €17,000 but the airline found another way to pay for the fuel on the emergency stopover in Damascus.

AN EMERGENCY LAYOVER in Syria’s capital was bad enough. Then passengers on Air France Flight 562 were asked to open their wallets to check if they had enough cash to pay for more fuel.

The plane, heading from Paris to Lebanon’s capital, diverted amid tensions near the Beirut airport on Wednesday. Low on fuel, it instead landed in Damascus, the capital of neighboring Syria, where a civil war is raging.

An Air France spokesman explained today that the crew inquired about passenger cash only as a “precautionary measure” because of the “very unusual circumstances.” Sanctions against Syria complicated payment for extra fuel.

He said Air France found a way to pay for the fill-up without tapping customer pockets, and apologized for the inconvenience. He wouldn’t say how the airline paid, or how much.

One woman aboard said the passengers had rounded up €17,000.

“The pilot asked the passengers in first class to get their cash together. Everyone started to collect money, and they managed to collect €17,000, but the pilot in the end didn’t take anything. They resolved the problems with the Damascus airport,” said a passenger speaking on France-Info radio identified as May Bsat.

The Boeing 777, carrying 185 people, took off for an overnight layover in Cyprus then landed safely in Beirut yesterday.

Lebanon is a volatile mix of pro- and anti-Syrian factions, and a series of hostage-takings has raised worries about Lebanon being dragged deeper into Syria’s unrest. Mobs supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad blocked the main airport highway in Beirut on Wednesday, before Lebanese military units moved in.

The layover was awkward for Air France, the flagship carrier for a country whose government toes a hard line against Syrian President Bashar Assad — and warns all its citizens to avoid or leave Syrian soil.

France, which once ruled Syria and Lebanon, championed European Union-wide economic sanctions on Syria — including its national airline, Syria Air. Air France operated regular flights to Damascus until suspending them amid violence earlier this year.

While it was the first time Air France said it had resorted to a request for passenger cash, it wasn’t the first airline to do so.

Hundreds of passengers traveling from India to Britain were stranded for six hours in Vienna last year when their Comtel Air flight stopped for fuel, and the charter service asked them to kick in more than £20,000 to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England.

Read: Flight AF447: ‘Crew in a state of near-total loss of control’>

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44 Comments
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    Mute David O Connor
    Favourite David O Connor
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:04 PM

    I can see mick o leary salvating reading that article…yummy cash

    152
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    Mute mattoid
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    Aug 18th 2012, 8:50 AM

    Don’t encourage him… He might see it as a handy opportunity – your fare just reserves a seat for your arse and the opportunity to potentially fly. After that you all have to chip in for fuel, pilot wages, landing fees etc. and if you can’t raise enough with the whip round the plane doesn’t budge and you have to re-book for the next possible slot, hopefully with more generous fellow passengers….

    15
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    Mute tony duggan
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:13 PM

    BREAKING NEWS!!!

    Ryanair just announced flights from Ireland to Damascus .

    148
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    Mute Don Healy
    Favourite Don Healy
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:33 PM

    one way only!

    66
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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:05 PM

    Bet Michael O’Leary is rubbing his chin and thinkng…’hmmmm….not a bad idea that’.

    133
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    Mute Margaret Noonan
    Favourite Margaret Noonan
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:25 PM
    38
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    Mute Peter Daly
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    Aug 17th 2012, 9:53 PM

    I’m waiting for the punch line,,,…..
    There is one……isn’t there !

    91
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    Mute Peter Daly
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:44 PM

    For those red thumbs I was being sarcastic as these details are very scary, as I am a frequent flyer.

    90
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    Mute Conor Hickey
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    Aug 18th 2012, 9:23 AM

    Ryanair will be at this in no time.

    50
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    Mute Jack Dooner
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:00 PM

    That’s disgraceful !! Flights are expensive enough. Seems a little cheeky :O

    54
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    Mute Lauren McCarthy
    Favourite Lauren McCarthy
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:04 PM

    So if you were on the flight you’d take the chance of running out of fuel and smashing into the ground rather than loan the pilot a few bob?

    227
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    Mute John F
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    Aug 17th 2012, 11:56 PM

    I don’t think that would be an issue Lauren, it’s hardly like the pilot was going to continue on if he couldn’t arrange a refuel… “Ah sure the collection didn’t work out too well but we’ll take our chances and see how far we get!” :)

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    Mute Anne-Marie Kenneally
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:07 AM

    53 red thumbs on your totally valid comment. Who are these idiots? I think if you red thumb, you should be required to explain yourself. That would separate the men from the boys.

    33
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    Mute John F
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:12 AM

    Did you read the article Anne-Marie, it appears the exhausted all other options! Air France’s fuel account was suspended at this airport after they discontinued flights due to the Syrian unrest, they couldn’t use the company credit card as all credit card transactions within Syria are currently blocked due to international sanctions, if it came to a choice between staying in Damascus or chipping in some money (which would obviously be returned) to get the hell out of there, I know which option I’d go for!

    134
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    Mute Anne-Marie Kenneally
    Favourite Anne-Marie Kenneally
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:20 AM

    I have no idea why you’ve said that to me. I was commenting on the red thumbs on your comment. You know………the ones who disagreed with you. I didn’t mention the article. Which I understood perfectly,thanks.

    30
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    Mute John F
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:29 AM

    I beg your pardon, but there aren’t 53 red thumbs on my comment, there are 4. There are 53 (now 63) red thumbs on the comment Jack made, the one I assumed you were referring to.

    42
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    Mute Anne-Marie Kenneally
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:29 AM

    And……..silence. Great.

    15
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    Mute Anne-Marie Kenneally
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:37 AM

    @john f .i replied to John Dooners post. Don’t know how you and me got involved lol

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    Mute John F
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:47 AM

    Because you said the comment with 53 red thumbs was totally valid!….. , stay off the gargle Ann-Marie! :)

    64
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    Mute Jules O'Sullivan
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    Aug 18th 2012, 2:41 AM

    Now 9 red thumbs @John

    3
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    Mute Jonny California
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    Aug 18th 2012, 10:16 AM

    Not if there is no alternative .

    1
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    Mute Laura Nolan
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:11 PM

    Thought about Michael O Leary straight away!!!!

    50
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    Mute Stray Mutt
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:07 PM

    Sure it wasn’t Ryanair?
    Michael O’Leary’s latest stunt!

    37
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    Mute Martin Waldron
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:17 AM

    How the hell are people joking about this?

    Wake up, that had the potential to make Munich look minor! A plane full of French civilians, like me and you, stranded in an ex French colony, against whom they recently imposed sanctions, which is presently in a huge civil war.

    All I can say is tf someone in the airport had decency; and what a sad reflection on this forum that all anyone could do was joke?

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    Mute fizi_water
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:23 AM

    Very truth, that could have happened much much worse.

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    Mute Eoghan Wallace
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:59 PM

    Wow! I’m surprised Ryanair wasn’t the first to suggest this.

    35
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    Mute John F
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:00 AM

    Ok.. Something Witty and Original………….. Eh, I know

    “Im surprised Michael O’Leary hasn’t thought of that!” ………………….

    32
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    Mute Tony Stanley
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    Aug 18th 2012, 2:03 AM

    I work in the industry! I’m AMAZED they diverted to Damascus (oddly enough on the same day my airlines flights still operate into Beirut. An amazing city full of the nicest people might I add) when Larnaca is not exactly a million miles away and well within what should range of emergency fuel!

    But I personally wouldn’t board an air France aircraft anyway!

    29
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    Mute John F
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    Aug 18th 2012, 9:13 AM

    Surely an airport in Northern Israel or even Amman in Jordan would have been better options! they must have been very low on fuel!

    8
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    Mute Tony Stanley
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:47 PM

    I’m not so sure the Israeli authorities would have been too welcoming of a plane full of Muslim Arabs arriving on their soil, it may have caused more problems then it was worth!

    I used to have a passport with a massive Arabic stamp on one of the pages that was my residents visa for when I lived in Qatar. Although I left that job it remained in there until my passport was up for renewal. I then started going to Israel in my new job, the attitude I got each and every time I arrived there. Dragged off into offices and interrogated! I ended up renewing my passport early!!!!

    8
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    Mute John Deane
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    Aug 17th 2012, 10:04 PM

    ha ha :)

    28
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    Mute Peter Doyle
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    Aug 18th 2012, 1:56 AM

    Why is no one surprised that the first class passengers had 17,000 euros in cash in their pockets?! I thought rich folks didn’t carry cash due to fears of a lower class member of society robbing them!

    25
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    Mute Tobias Elhar
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    Aug 18th 2012, 2:29 PM

    They didn’t… it was €17k from a combined effort by all those on board (n=185), which is only €90 a piece. The story was the pilot had asked the First Class passengers… as obviously they the are ones closest to the cockpit, rather than use the tannoy.

    2
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    Mute Micheal Mac Suibhne
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    Aug 17th 2012, 11:16 PM

    This sort of thing has happened before except this time the passengers didn’t have to cough up. Last year a plane load of people had to pay €31,000 to get back to England from Austria!

    15
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    Mute Andrew Telford
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    Aug 18th 2012, 7:25 AM

    If it was a Ryanair flight… The headline would read ‘Negotiations for a tank of jet fuel broke down when MOL produced a handful of scratchcards and said the country wasn’t just getting €36.80 and a Casio watch from the flight’s passengers… They could potentially be a Ryanair millionaire’

    13
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    Mute 1 Human Being
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    Aug 17th 2012, 11:18 PM

    Heres another Ryanair Michael o Leary joke! Or was it the French dropping off some revolutionary experts to sort out the ‘problems’ in syria. Expect Assad to be gone by the end of the month if they did.

    10
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    Mute Mick 'The Bull' Daly
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    Aug 18th 2012, 12:44 PM

    Ryanair and MOL comments yawn yawn yawn

    10
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    Mute Ghandi O Hagen
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    Aug 18th 2012, 8:29 PM

    Give Ryanair a break before o’Leary internal European flights were almost as dear as trans Atlantic.State owned airlines charged obscene prices it was a cartel.O’Leary doesn’t force you to fly with him but people do.typical Irish find something successful and knock it.Unlike Aer Lingus they dont strike at every opportunity leaving passengers high and dry,if not for O’Leary air fares would be 30% higher.

    5
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    Mute Joseph Hughes
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    Aug 18th 2012, 8:37 AM

    I wonder how the collector of the money remembered who gave what when returning the cash, I think it averaged out at about just under €92 per head :)

    4
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    Mute James Lawlor
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    Aug 18th 2012, 9:36 AM

    Probably used one of those pen things and a sheet of what’s that white flat stuff oh yeah paper.

    28
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    Mute Alan Quirke
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    Aug 18th 2012, 9:14 AM

    Seems to me it’s worth the while upgrading to first class and then pick pocketing then when asleep. 17K from around 20 passengers in cash is not bad going. Somebody give that airline a fuel card by the way.

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    Mute Michele Kealy
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    Aug 18th 2012, 6:37 AM

    wtf…?

    1
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    Mute Caroline Locke
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    Aug 18th 2012, 3:14 PM

    The economy class passengers were the ones asked to pay up I am sure :-(

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    Mute Niall Connolly
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    Aug 18th 2012, 1:19 PM

    How many people were flying first class that they could collect €17,000 in CASH?

    1
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