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.
In this post:
Mauritius-bound Austrian 777 returns to Vienna
This incident happened on Saturday, November 2, 2024, and involves Austrian flight OS17, scheduled to operate from Vienna, Austria (VIE), to Port Louis, Mauritius (MRU). The flight was operated by a 22-year-old Boeing 777-200ER with the registration code OE-LPF. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:25PM, and arrive the following morning at 8:40AM local time, after a 5,360-mile journey.
The flight departed more or less on schedule, taking off at 7:46PM, and starting its long southbound journey, flying over the airspace of Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Sudan. As the jet flew over the Red Sea and approached Eritrea, it suddenly turned around.
The decision was made to return all the way to Vienna. The aircraft landed there at 5:25AM, around 9hr40min after it first departed Vienna. Suffice it to say that a nearly 10-hour “flight to nowhere” isn’t ideal for anyone.
Eritrea rejected this Austrian flight, causing issues
Every so often we see an airline operate a very long “flight to nowhere.” Typically it happens due to some maintenance issue that doesn’t pose an immediate safety concern, but which needs to be addressed before any additional flights can be operated. In those situations, there’s a huge benefit to having the aircraft fly back to base, even if it’s costly and inconvenient.
However, this diversion had nothing to do with a maintenance issue. Instead, it has to do with Austrian reportedly not having permission to use Eritrea’s airspace. aeroTELEGRAPH quotes an Austrian spokesperson, who blames this on Eritrea’s “failure to grant overflight permission,” and describes this as “inexplicable and unforeseeable.”
The airline claims that an overflight permit had been issued for this flight, but Eritrea’s air traffic control didn’t authorize the flight into Eritrean airspace. The airline even points out how it flew exactly the same route a couple of days earlier, without any issues.
The following day, on November 3, the same flight took a significantly different path, clearly to avoid that airspace. Once the aircraft made it to Egypt, it instead took a turn to the east, flying over Saudi Arabia and Oman, to stay clear of the corridor of airspace that would take it near Eritrea.
This has to be one of the more unusual diversions we’ve seen. What we don’t know is why Eritrea denied the Austrian jet permission to operate this route. Was it just bureaucracy and something wasn’t signed off correctly, or…?
Interestingly the flight that diverted was the first one of the calendar month on that route. Could it be that Austrian somehow didn’t have permission for November, or is that completely off base?
Some may be wondering why the Austrian 777 didn’t just change its flight path. There are presumably a few factors at play:
- The jet probably couldn’t continue to Mauritius without refueling, while still staying above minimum reserve levels
- Diverting somewhere else to refuel would have likely caused the crew to time out, and that would’ve been mighty complicated
- Simply put, this is a tricky part of the world when it comes to logistics and red tape for air traffic control, with countries like Somalia, Yemen, etc.
Bottom line
An Austrian Boeing 777 scheduled to fly to Mauritius had to return to Vienna, where it landed nearly 10 hours after it first departed. This diversion was due to some sort of an issue with Eritrea air traffic control. An airline spokesperson claims that an overflight permit had been issued for the flight, but Eritrea’s air traffic control didn’t authorize the flight to use its airspace. This has to be one of those situations that’s hard for a pilot to explain to passengers.
What do you make of this Austrian 777’s return to Vienna?
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.
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.
Eritrea dont want aua but asking our gouverment for help and sending people to austria
Sh*thole country.
"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?
I wonder if passengers on that flight were credited with actual miles flown?
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.
Except that they actually DID fly the additional miles...
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...
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.
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…)
See here: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/air-france-suspends-red-sea-132358196.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANOYtV8ZmU1xfn2IgeufHl5e5UbRzuR9vT__TN5IPtS7-969Ns5Vn6XJHa_cChGCxBZ30y1OHJD9NGSUxt5Y54JgasR3ESyT_wAypOS3MiN6TS5KMjT1JaDL5JkKzzXnpasDsCfF0otitJZfDF7Do8D2ZcJLL2e2x_c_AsGQ3jn_
Lack of fuel is not a plausible reason: they had enough to return to Vienna
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.
the third world isn't supposed to make sense.
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
More like Error-trea, amirite?
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.
@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