An Air France Airbus A350 operating a flight from Paris to Chennai has declared an emergency, Aviation Source News reports.
It was reported that the Air France flight AF108, originally bound for Chennai was making a rapid descent back into Paris CDG.
F-HTYE is the aircraft involved in the emergency.
Data from Planespotters.net shows that F-HTYE is a 3.9-year-old Airbus A350-900.
Furthermore, it was delivered to the French carrier back in May 2020.
Also, of the A350-900 variant, Air France has 27 of them in the fleet, of which 25 are in active service and two are parked.
The report said it was unclear what the nature of the emergency was.
Furthermore, AF108 continues to descend through FL160 towards Paris CDG, it said.
In a related development, the Guardian reported at the weekend that the US Federal Aviation Administration was investigating how a United Airlines Boeing 737-800 lost an external panel before landing safely in Oregon.
The Guardian reported that the United flight 433 landed at Medford airport at about 1.45 pm on Friday carrying 139 passengers and six crew after departing from San Francisco, the FAA and airline said.
The FAA said a post-landing airline inspection of the 25-year-old plane revealed a missing panel. United said it would also investigate. It said no emergency had been declared because there was no indication of the damage during flight.
“We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service,” the airline said.
Boeing did not comment, directing questions to United Airlines.
FAA records show the plane was built in late 1998. The Rogue Valley Times posted a photo of the plane with the missing panel. Traffic was briefly halted at the airport to search for it.
Last week a United Airlines-operated Boeing 737 MAX rolled off the runway in Houston, prompting investigations; and a United-operated Boeing 777-200 bound for Japan lost a tyre after takeoff from San Francisco and was diverted to Los Angeles where it landed safely.
Before that, another Boeing jet was forced to make an emergency landing in LAX after taking off from San Francisco due to hydraulic issues.
A United Boeing 737 bound for Florida from Houston on 4 March returned to the airport shortly after takeoff because the engine had taken in plastic bubble wrap that was on the airfield before departure. Social media posts showed flames coming out of the engine.
Sahara Reporters
