An Air France Airbus A350 flying to Tel Aviv yesterday flew most of the way, and then returned to Paris shortly before starting its descent. What exactly happened here?
Israel-bound Air France A350 u-turns on approach
This incident happened on Thursday, September 26, 2024, and involves Air France flight AF958 from Paris (CDG) to Tel Aviv (TLV). The flight was operated by a three-year-old Airbus A350-900 with the registration code F-HTYI.
The 2,043-mile flight was scheduled to take 4hr15min, departing at 9:30AM local time, and arriving at 2:45PM local time (there’s a one hour time change). The flight ended up taking off a bit behind schedule, at 10:17AM.
The first three hours of the flight were routine, as the plane made its way across Europe at 39,000 feet, flying over France, Switzerland, Italy, Albania, Greece, etc. Around 200 miles from Tel Aviv, while flying over the Mediterranean Sea near Cyprus, the decision was made for the aircraft to return to Paris.
So the plane made a u-turn, and started the nearly four hour journey back to Paris. The aircraft ended up touching down there at 5:07PM, 6hr50min after it initially departed. So yeah, in the end, the aircraft operated a nearly seven hour flight to “nowhere.”
What’s the reason for this Air France diversion?
While it’s not totally uncommon to see an aircraft divert or return to its point of origin, it is a bit unusual to see this happen while the aircraft is approaching its destination, especially when we’re not talking about a super short flight.
Admittedly Israel is one of the more challenging places that airlines can fly nowadays, given how rapidly the security situation can evolve. However, French media is reporting that this diversion had nothing to do with security, but rather it was due to a technical incident “not affecting the airworthiness of the aircraft.” The company went on to state that “Air France crews are trained and rehearsed regularly to manage this type of known and controlled situation.”
As surprising as it may be, there are all kinds of technical issues that may not pose a concern for the current flight, but that may need to be addressed before the aircraft operates another flight.
So if this was indeed due to a technical incident not impacting the airworthiness of the aircraft, presumably Air France made the decision for the jet to return to Paris, where it’s easier for the aircraft to receive necessary maintenance.
I guess Air France must really fuel up the jets on this route before departing Paris, to have enough fuel to basically fly it in both directions. That makes sense, in light of the potential for a complicated diversion on this route, in case Tel Aviv Airport were to close.
Furthermore, from an aircraft insurance standpoint, I also have to imagine that Air France might not want a plane parked in Tel Aviv for an extended period of time, given the risks involved.
There’s no doubt this was incredibly inconvenient for passengers, who had such a long flight that only took them back to their point of origin. But I imagine Air France decided that the benefits of having the plane back at base outweighed the other issues.
This diversion will cost Air France a lot of money, not only given the cost of operating such a long flight to “nowhere,” but also given the duty of care the airline has for passengers, plus the need to pay out EU261 compensation to many passengers (including those on the return flight out of Tel Aviv that was canceled).
Bottom line
An Air France Airbus A350 flying to Tel Aviv returned to Paris shortly before starting its descent. In the end, the plane operated a roughly 6hr50min “flight to nowhere.” Air France claims this was due to a technical incident not impacting the airworthiness of the aircraft.
It’s not every day that you see an aircraft return to its origin while approaching the destination, which is why I think this story is interesting to cover.
What do you make of this Air France diversion on a Tel Aviv-bound flight?
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