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?
In this post:
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?
The bottom line in the abhorrent subject is simple ….
Iranian government must stop supporting this war of terror against Isreal.
Hamas, Hezbollah, IRG, etc, must stop their terrorist activities against Isreal.
Hamas, Hezbollah, etc, stop using Muslim citizens as human shields against the IDF.
Hamas must release the Israeli hostages immediately.
Were commenters to concentrate upon condemning the true source of the problem instead of trying to justify the...
The bottom line in the abhorrent subject is simple ….
Iranian government must stop supporting this war of terror against Isreal.
Hamas, Hezbollah, IRG, etc, must stop their terrorist activities against Isreal.
Hamas, Hezbollah, etc, stop using Muslim citizens as human shields against the IDF.
Hamas must release the Israeli hostages immediately.
Were commenters to concentrate upon condemning the true source of the problem instead of trying to justify the terrorist actions and blame Israel, these pages and the whole region would be better for it.
The result will be a most welcome peace in the region, no more back biting between ignorant commenters on these pages and a return to unbiased aviation topics.
The source of the problem is Israel's occupation of the Palestinians, and it's future plans to occupy other parts of the Middle East. And as we have seen, Israel isn't above using human shields itself. Israel needs to stop it's own terrorist actions against the Palestinians and others.
Even if Hamas and Hizbollah didn't exist, Israel would still be a genocidal apartheid ethno-state.
Hopefully Air France diverts the entire airplane to The Hague next time.
Oy vey.
Why do you continue to allow these anti-Semitic, terrorist-loving shreds of human debris to post their Jew-hating screed? Please have some standards and starting banning these scum.
Oh please, criticizing Israel or calling them out for slaughtering innocent civilians is not anti-Semitic nor does it make you a terrorist lover. That tired out tactic of trying to silence criticism of Israel and erase calling out the suffering Israel inflicts is played out and doesn't work any more.
So, I guess if I call you a Jew-hating cu*t, that would be okay? The better part of you clearly dripped down your mother’s leg.
Julia is one of Khamenei's useful idiots.
@Pete
And you must be on the Hasbara propaganda payroll.
OMG! Mind your language, Neal Z! Is your second name 'Ziona*i? Thought so. Julia is a human being who has empathy; she knows what your side is up to --- she and the rest of the world not besotted with Zionist money or ideology. Your tired and tiresome trope of bring up the anti-semitism card is now notorious as a cover to mask the genocidal mania now gripping that apartheid settler-colonial entity in the Middle...
OMG! Mind your language, Neal Z! Is your second name 'Ziona*i? Thought so. Julia is a human being who has empathy; she knows what your side is up to --- she and the rest of the world not besotted with Zionist money or ideology. Your tired and tiresome trope of bring up the anti-semitism card is now notorious as a cover to mask the genocidal mania now gripping that apartheid settler-colonial entity in the Middle East. I can now barely mention the name without getting a conniption! Listening to Satan-yahoo and his minions, as well as his all-paid-for lackeys in the West, I see how the likes of Shitler and Goebbels manufactured consent to perpetrate the Holocaust. Israel's mask has fallen off. The pariah within is exposed. That means the clock is ticking for the Zionist state.
It IS antisemitic if you single out Israel and ignore Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Iran, etc. etc.
Since when is being anti genocide being anti semitic?
Keep drinking the zio kool aid, Ben Gvir’s sharmoota.
Sounds like my kind of AF flight. I've experienced this kind of strange things a bit too much with that airline, and thus I rather avoid them at all cost.
Quite lucky though that they had filled up the tanks, most likely due to the political situation, so that they actually could make it back to CDG in one go. And lucky for those passengers they they were seated on an A350, which is...
Sounds like my kind of AF flight. I've experienced this kind of strange things a bit too much with that airline, and thus I rather avoid them at all cost.
Quite lucky though that they had filled up the tanks, most likely due to the political situation, so that they actually could make it back to CDG in one go. And lucky for those passengers they they were seated on an A350, which is better fitted for longer flights. Many European airlines send narrowbodies to TLV these days. Just imagine sitting on a Lufty A320 for 7 hours straight...
I'm surprised they didn't land in Cyprus instead and tried again later.
It was reported as a technical issue, so a return to the engineers at CDG was probably the right call.
I'm pretty sure that CDG was the only viable place for a diversion when there's no true emergency. The insurance company would have issues with having a jet standing on TLV for a long time (as Lucky wrote), larger airports in Arab countries like IST or CAI are not an option due to having passengers from Israel on board, airports on Cyprus are quite small and have no facilities, ATH is small and crowded and...
I'm pretty sure that CDG was the only viable place for a diversion when there's no true emergency. The insurance company would have issues with having a jet standing on TLV for a long time (as Lucky wrote), larger airports in Arab countries like IST or CAI are not an option due to having passengers from Israel on board, airports on Cyprus are quite small and have no facilities, ATH is small and crowded and has no long haul aircraft based, so then FCO, hub of fellow SkyTeam member and home of some A350-900s would be the nearest. But then, when already on cruising altitude and speed, CDG is just over one hour further away from the point of diversion.
Er...IST is not in an Arab country...just FYI.
How long until the Zionaz*i’s claim Air France is KHamas?
Are you OK? Sorry your boy Nasrallah got got today. I know it's hard for you.
Except they didn't get him, Israel probably fabricated that as an excuse to bomb Beirut anyway. Bibi is showing maps of the Middle East with southern Lebanon already annexed into Israel. This whole conflict with Hiizb is just an excuse for them to occupy part of Lebanon.
@Julia, well said
Well said Julia.
Shame on you, Netanyahu JR
Must've realised that Bibi was still alive and kicking and didn't want to be anywhere near a POS.
It's absolutely mad that despite flying to Israel being a commercial and operational nightmare at the moment, western airlines are still flying there - clearly a political decision because the west supports the genocidal entity. Can you imagine airlines maintaining flights to any other conflict zone? Routes would be cut immediately.
Turkish is back in Afghanistan, Emirates is continuing flights to Lebanon, and so on. Israel is a wealthy country that can afford to pay high premiums for plane tickets, unlike many conflict zones. That's why you have Israel flights. No political decisions involved
You anti-semitic troll. Hate speech isn’t covered by freedom of speech.
The only person being antisemitoc here is you "Endre" given your conflation of criticism of Israel with Jews.
I hate to break it to you pal, but hate speech is 100% covered by freedom of speech
It's only protected against government sanction, not censorship on social media, blogs, or anywhere else that's not controlled by a government body. Personally, I think if people want to post childish, reactionary nonsense that makes them sound like the brainless, keffiyeh-clad dimwit at Columbia or UCLA, Then that nonsense should be left visible for all to see. Iran's useful idiots.
"Personally, I think if people want to post childish, reactionary nonsense that makes them sound like the brainless, keffiyeh-clad dimwit at Columbia or UCLA, Then that nonsense should be left visible for all to see. Iran's useful idiots."
What a stupid comment.
@Endre, where and how was his comment anti semitic? You can't just throw that trite response at everything you do not agree with, it belittles the term and makes genuine situations of anti-semitism fly under the radar where no one would take it seriously.
@vlcnc, very true--government and ethnicity/religion are not one and the same. Criticism of one is not criticism of the other
Airlines are flying to many conflict zones, how else would people get in and out of them? For example, OS had flights to Iraq where they actually had to excercise steep approach to avoid terrorists with missiles. Was that political too? No, it was simply a good business. Flying to TLV is safe and there's not a single incident since the conflict began.
'the genocidal entity'. You are pathetic.
Emirates EK953, 20 September. DXB to BEY. Made it almost all the way to Beirut before turning around and returning to DXB due to Lebanese airspace closure due to missiles.
What an absolute waste of jet fuel being burnt up into the atmosphere. And I can't imagine how every single other flight like this is also carrying that much extra weight in fuel. I admit I contribute to the problem every time I fly too, but this kind of flight is just insulting. To the environment.
You can thank western imperialism for that, they are straining so hard to keep Israel normalised. Considerations for the environment don't get a thought, as long as the their little statelet is kept normalised - they don't even care for their bottom line with regards to this, do you think they're gonna care about the environment??
The flight is most likely also being used to evacuate those who don’t want to remain in Israel and non essential diplomatic staff.
The situation has gone on too long now and has escalated.
I watched a documentary about the tragic events on October 7 2023. No intelligent person should believe they were nothing but abhorrent.
However here we are, almost a year later with 1000s of other innocent people, including children,...
The flight is most likely also being used to evacuate those who don’t want to remain in Israel and non essential diplomatic staff.
The situation has gone on too long now and has escalated.
I watched a documentary about the tragic events on October 7 2023. No intelligent person should believe they were nothing but abhorrent.
However here we are, almost a year later with 1000s of other innocent people, including children, who have been killed and moreover nothing done to release hostages if still alive. I don’t even believe the IL government really cares about them.
What a sad world we live in.