Two back-to-back incidents in the skies over Europe on Sunday served to remind how incidents of smoke and toxic fumes on commercial airliners are on the rise. The first occurrence saw an Air France flight to Seoul have to make an emergency diversion due to fumes and a burning odor in the cockpit. Later in the day, an Iberia flight to San Juan made a hurried return to Madrid after passengers and crew reported smoke in the cabin.

Avid readers of Simple Flying will know that these are far from isolated incidents, with reports of smoke or toxic fumes in the cockpit and/or cabin showing a sharp increase in recent years. Air France has had a particularly tough time of it, with at least ten incidents over the past year and a half when flights have been forced to make diversions an

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