Earlier today, an Air France Boeing 777 operating a flight between Paris and N’Djamena declared an emergency, forcing a return.
Information is limited surrounding the incident at hand, but below is what we know on this so far.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Air France AF908 – Paris to N’Djamena…
Air France flight AF908, which declared the emergency, is a routine scheduled flight between Paris CDG and N’Djamena.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was F-GSPD.
As per data from Planespotters.net, F-GSPD is a 27.2 year old Boeing 777-200 that was delivered to the airline back in January 1999.
Of the 777-200 variant, Air France has 18 of them in their fleet.
Within the 18, 17 are in active service, and one is parked, with an average fleet age of 25.7 years across the type.
As well as the 777-200, the French carrier has the following other aircraft in their fleet:
- 54 Airbus A220s.
- 4 Airbus A318s.
- 2 Airbus A319s.
- 36 Airbus A320s.
- 11 Airbus A321s.
- 8 Airbus A330s.
- 41 Airbus A350s.
- 43 Boeing 777-300ERs.
- 2 Boeing 777 Freighters.
- 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
In total, the mainline carrier has 229 aircraft, of which 201 are in active service and 28 are parked, offering an average age of 11.9 years.
Air France flight AF908, which declared the emergency, departed from Paris at 1140 local time and proceeded to head south to N’Djamena.
Near the Spanish border, the Boeing 777 took a u-turn and proceeded to declare an emergency via the 7700 squawk code.
From there, the decision was made to return to base, which it did so over two hours later.
The aircraft landed without further incident, and no injuries were reported.
What Was The Reason for the Emergency?
According to Air France’s flight status page, it is understood that the reason for the emergency onboard AF908 Paris-N’Djamena was due to a technical issue on the Boeing 777.
There was a delay for around five hours on the ground for passengers before the same airframe, F-GSPD, departed again.
At the time of publication, the aircraft is still in the air and is currently over Morocco, with the technical issues looking like they are fixed.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to the incident at hand, then we will update you accordingly.
UPDATE #1 @ 2012 UK time – As per @FlightEmergency on X, the reason for the emergency was due to a engine vibration.
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