Passengers onboard an Air France flight destined for Paris were departing Buenos Aires when there were reports of smoke filling the cabin. This led to the aircraft returning to Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport (EZE) out of an abundance of caution, just 35 minutes after the flight had departed.
The flight, which was operating from Buenos Aires to 
Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG), had departed from EZE on November 20 for the overnight return flight to Paris, and was still gaining altitude when the pilot declared a PAN PAN PAN (an urgent but non-life-threatening situation), and requested to return to its point of origin.
AF411 Flight Details
The affected flight, AF411, was scheduled to depart from Buenos Aires at 22:40 for the flight to Paris, which takes approximately 12 hours and 30 minutes. The service on November 20 had been late departing from EZE, becoming airborne at 23:16. The flight was still gaining altitude when the pilot requested to abort the flight, and safely landed back in Buenos Aires on Runway 11 just 35 minutes after departure.
In a report by AvHerald, passengers had reported that they had noticed a ‘weird’ smell onboard, and then smoke started to enter the cabin. Reports have also stated that this alleged smoke was coming from the lights; however, this is yet to be verified.
Simple Flying reached out to Air France for a statement on the affected flight; however, the airline did not immediately respond by the time this article was published.
Landed Safe And Sound
As the flight had gained just 17,000 feet before identifying the technical issue, the crew acted quickly, and after the flight had returned to Buenos Aires, the service was subsequently cancelled. Affected passengers were rebooked onto alternative services, while the aircraft remained grounded to be inspected by maintenance personnel.
At the time of writing, data from Flightradar24 identified the aircraft as remaining on the apron at Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), also known as Ministro Pistarini International Airport. Air France maintains a double daily service between Buenos Aires and Paris, operated by the Boeing 787-9 (AF471) and Airbus A350-900 (AF411).
This happens to be the second occurrence of smoke being noticed onboard an Air France flight in a matter of weeks. Earlier this month, a flight between Paris and Seoul required an emergency diversion due to fumes and a burning odor being noticed in the cockpit. The A350-900, which bore registration F-HUVC, diverted to Munich out of an abundance of caution after just one hour in the air. The aircraft remained on the ground awaiting the maintenance crew to inspect and repair the aircraft, and a replacement flight onboard a Boeing 777-300ER was sent from Paris to Munich to pick up the stranded passengers before continuing to Seoul Incheon Airport (ICN).
Double Trouble: Air France and Iberia Battle Smoke And Fumes in Separate European Incidents
Reports of smoke or toxic fumes in the cockpit and/or cabin have seen a sharp increase in recent years.
F-HTYT Details
The aircraft at the centre of this incident, an Airbus A350-900 with registration F-HTYT (serial number 578) has been in the Air France fleet for 3.2 years. Data from ch-aviation identifies that the aircraft took its first test flight under French Airbus registration F-WWDW on September 27, 2022. The aircraft was delivered to the French flag carrier on November 25, 2022. The aircraft is named ‘Angers’ after a city in Western France, some 190 miles (300 kilometers) from Paris. Powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 engines, it is configured with three classes of service. 34 Business Class, 24 Premium Economy, and 266 Economy class seats.
Air France operates a fleet of 39 Airbus A350s, all of which are set to gradually replace the Airbus A330-200 and Boeing 777-200ER in the carrier’s fleet, while also expected to replace several aging 777-300ERs. The airline has an order for an additional 49 A350-900 and three A350-1000 airplanes. The carrier’s narrowbody operations are all Airbus aircraft, with a mix of A220-300, A318-100 (the only airline operator), A319-100, A320-200, A321-100, and A321-200.
The airline, which is one of Europe’s biggest, operates a robust network of domestic and international flights from its two main hubs at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly. It maintains focus cities in Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, and Toulouse, and the airline is part of the Air France-KLM group, which includes the Dutch flag carrier KLM. The group has several subsidiaries, including Air France Cargo, Air France Hop, Transavia France, KLM Cargo, KLM Cityhopper, Transavia, and Martinair. The airline also has minority shareholders in other airlines that include Air Corsica (12%), Air Côte d’Ivoire (20%), Air Mauritius (3%), Air Tahiti (7%), Kenya Airways (8%), Air Calédonie (2.1%), Gol Transportes Aéreos (1.5%), Royal Air Maroc (1%), Scandinavian Airlines (20%) and WestJet (2.3%).
