REPORTAGE
Air traffic is almost at a standstill and its recovery can only be very gradual. But right now, Air France is mobilizing to reassure its crews and passengers in the face of the coronavirus. A way, too, to respond to images of crowded aircraft without distancing measures or wearing a mask, which have been widely circulated on social networks. At Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, the company has set up a sanitary system that goes beyond the recommendations.
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On the airport tarmac, the teams are busy spraying the plane with a virucidal product. "The principle must remain active", explains Lionel Fara, of the company UUDS, yellow jumpsuit from head to toe. "This is the principle of the product that is nebulized, with very fine droplets. This is something that we developed after the first manifestations of Ebola, based on a product certified as virucidal, in order to disinfect planes remanently. "
Double protection with mask
The product is effective for ten days. Another service provider, ACNA, enters the aircraft for cleaning after each flight. "We added 30 to 40% of staff," says Géraud Visinoni, its deputy director. "Today, in the search for detail, we go to any point of contact, not regular as we did before but any potential point of contact, even irregular. We are doing a real hunt for the virus."
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On board the plane, the air is filtered every three minutes by a system similar to that of operating theaters, according to Vincent Feuillie, Air France medical consultant. He believes that if we add the wearing of the mask, the risk of contamination is close to zero: "If I am sick, if I carry the virus, even asymptomatic, I sneeze, I spit, I will sputter in my mask. I'm in front, I'm wearing a mask, it's double protection. " Air France makes every effort to reassure its customers. A must to bring them back when traffic can resume.