Joon/AF218 vanished from FR over Iran

[jthg]

AF218 CDG-BOM began descending and diverting from course over Iran squawking 7700. Had descended to approx FL110 and disappeared from FR.

Anyone know anything?

[Airbubba]

AF218 CDG-BOM, an A343 F-GLZP, just diverted into IFN (Isfahan, Iran) with an unknown emergency.

Any predictions? Out by the Eid al-Fitr?

[CargoOne]

AF218 CDG-BOM, an A343 F-GLZP, just diverted into IFN (Isfahan, Iran) with an unknown emergency.

Any predictions? Out by the Eid al-Fitr?

will be no problem, totally different story

[skadi]

AF218 CDG-BOM, an A343 F-GLZP, just diverted into IFN (Isfahan, Iran) with an unknown emergency.

Any predictions? Out by the Eid al-Fitr?

According Plane Finder now short prior leaving Iranian airspace.

skadi

[Airbubba]

According Plane Finder now short prior leaving Iranian airspace.

I'd say that Plane Finder is somewhat misinformed in this case. ;)


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x909/afr218_2_4ea920c103fe8f19b0af7975446837a339b07e18.jpg

[atakacs]

any idea of the nature of the emergency?

[Airbubba]

any idea of the nature of the emergency?

Don't know.

Looking at the data linked here it appears that on some days AF218 overflies Iran, on others it goes over Iraq:

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/af218

There are probably a lot of Desi's with U.S. passports on that flight since it is a popular Delta codeshare.

KWI is a few minutes further from the divert point, it would seem that something urgent caused them to go to IFN.

[Airbubba]

From the Express in the UK:

Air France emergency: AF218 disappears from radar after declaring emergency over IranAIR France flight AF218 vanished from radar after declaring an emergency over Iran, air traffic control has confirmed before the plane made an unscheduled landing sparking panic.

From FR24's Twitter feed:


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/978x365/af218_fr24_f37e1807295f091d6762bafad85c13dd29cd8bbe.jpg

[atakacs]

seemed to be a pretty quick divert... Smoke? Loss of pressurisation? I'd say something fairly major.

[Airbubba]

AF218 airborne again on the way to Jebel Ali, UAE. They are cruising at FL250 which suggests to me a pressurization or pack issue. Or, perhaps some O2 masks were used on the previous sector for the divert?


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1494x1098/af218_3_5d3f8dd0adb1cf64f95c5c4944ea19dabc932d6c.jpg

[DaveReidUK]

Air France emergency: AF218 disappears from radar

Hmmm.

In an ideal world, one might hope that the Daily Express would "disappear from radar". :O

Air France emergency: AF218 disappears from radar after declaring emergency over Iran (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1124506/air-france-flight-af218-emergency-radar-iran-paris-mumbai)

[Andy_S]

What is wrong with you guys??

It's bizarre, isn't it? A French airliner makes an emergency landing in Iran, and still someone manages to put an anti-American slant on the event.......

[booze]

Could be a very smart way of getting western planes to Iran circumventing embargos :D

[esscee]

Following on from post #13, another way of "dropping off" certain small freight packages or even returning people to Iran?

[Airbubba]

Following on from post #13, another way of "dropping off" certain small freight packages or even returning people to Iran?

Sounds totally wacky but strange things happen like the mysterious BA 149 'tech stop' in KWI hours after the Iraqis started their Gulf War I invasion:

Or did they use the BA flight to get people into Kuwait? British intelligence had notably more success in operating in Kuwait during the war than did their American counterparts: did they succeed in infiltrating agents in at the last moment? Some of the people caught on the last flight believed that to be the case.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-strange-flight-of-ba-149-why-did-no-one-prevent-a-british-airways-flight-into-kuwait-after-the-1537655.html

[wiggy]

Sounds totally wacky but strange things happen like the mysterious BA 149 'tech stop' in KWI hours after the Iraqis started their Gulf War I invasion:



Of course in contrast to Joon/AF and as the newspaper article spells out the BA149 arrival in KWI wasn't an unscheduled tech stop, it was always meant to land there, with passengers, cargo, packages etc, due to both leave and join the flight since it was a routine LHR-KWI-MAA-KUL service.

Whether anything "mysterious" went on with the 149 or whether it was a massive stuff up and poor judgement up I'll leave to others, but I do know the 149 story is one that has grown in the telling, especially by those who weren't there ( over the years I've worked with a handful of those who were there..).

The Independent article you've linked to spells out all the possibilities, not just the claims of intelligence gathering, and is worth reading in full,

Now back to Joon/AF.