An Austrian Airlines jet scheduled to operate a long haul flight ended up right where it started after flying for nearly 10 hours, though the reason for the diversion is especially strange.
Continue reading: Austrian 777 Returns To Vienna After 10 Hours For Bizarre Reason
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@Ben
This is out of topic but I wanted you to know that Singapore Airlines has made an announcement that they will retrofit their 41 long haul A350-900s with new business class. I am curious to know about the new seats.
https://www.flightglobal.com/airlines/sia-to-upgrade-business-class-across-long-haul-a350-fleet/160579.article
Hi Ben,
Check this out (tweet from FlightRadar24):
https://x.com/flightradar24/status/1853196185487425798?s=46&t=RW1afGxCLWomSCrlVYTnHQ
It seems that it was not only Austrian that had to change the route. Air France flights were also avoiding Eritrean airspace.
It does not appear to be an Austrian-specific problem as AF470 CDG-MRU on the same day also diverted back to Paris albeit way earlier in the flight. So I do not think its because of a missing signature or a permit that was not obtained on time. Furthermore, as Bruno already said AF continues to avoid Eritrean airspace as well.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/af470#37d22168
Air France flights to MRU, TNR turned back to CDG on Saturday and later took a long way avoiding red sea, and flew over Saudi and Oman. Some french newspapers reported pilots seeing unusual flashing objects at high altitude, taking this as a safety risk due to the region instability (Houthis rebels and Iran etc…)
Having enough fuel to return to Vienna is not the same as having enough fuel to continue. In order to continue, they would need to have enough fuel to fly the diversion route and also land with enough fuel to make it to an alternate plus reserve fuel. I’m guessing there are more/closer alternates near Vienna than SE Africa.
They also may not have been able to arrange overflight of Saudi and Oman in that short period of time.
Well if Austrian hypothetically screwed up and didn't get proper permission, would they come clean and admit it? If it were Austrian's fault, would they have to compensate all their passengers under EU rules? But blaming the Eritrean government for the problem may mean that it's beyond Austrian's control and no need to compensate the passengers for the delay. Unless Austrian Airlines provides proof, I don't trust them. I don't automatically blame Eritrea. Let's see the proof.
No, because the passengers would have been put on other flights, and would then receive proper credit once those flights are complete. There is no double dipping.
"However, this diversion had nothing to do with a maintenance issue."
If that's the case then who cares how old the airplane is. Is this airplane age text just some bot your writers use to fill space?
Eritrea dont want aua but asking our gouverment for help and sending people to austria
The most important factor is safety. A last minute route diversion might be misinterpreted by a local air traffic control authority and in this area, with war planes all over, it might be wise to do the inconvenient and return to VIE.
It appears to me that the flight plan prior to the departure from Vienna must have shown that the flight was scheduled to fly into and over Eritrean airspace. So why was not the siuation cleared long before the flight took off on it's long flight south to Mauritius? I presume all countries acording to the flight plan was informed.
We were due to return from Mauritius on the same flight the next day, so we arrived 72 hours later.
Austrian Airlines refused compensation, saying that this was not their fault.
How can we prove what really happened?
Actual passenger on the flight here;
From the top - NO, we were not credit at the miles flown.
Halfway into the flight I realised something was a mess when the aeroplane I can point north on the IFE.
Nobody including the cabin crew had no idea why this was happening at the time - a plane completely packed with holidaymakers.
I don’t think without a judges injunction we will not hear the truth of why the flight was planned the way it did - but I sense the regulator and the airline are shitting bricks.
The official statement is “ for operational reasons” the flight had to return to Port of departure.
I was rebooked to my final destination and issued with a complete new ticket to satisfy my travel requirements at the time; the question remains - why would anyone plan a holiday flight, bearing in mind that AUSTRIA is supposedly neutral, across a fricking Warzone.
Best guess is Austrian airlines tries to cut costs and they knowingly planned that route, because flying the longer route via Saudi Arabia and Salalah wouldn’t be as profitable…
Which they started doing after that incident, check Flightradar24.