AF995 diversion last night

[nghenderson]

Hi, AF995 JNB-CDG last night (departure 23/9) diverted to DSS and then continued to CDG an hour later. Does anyone know the reason for the diversion?

[DaveReidUK]

Perhaps he was as curious as the rest of us are to find out where DSS is ?

[Asturias56]

new one on me as well................

"Blaise Diagne International Airport is an international airport near the town of Diass in Thiès Region, Senegal, 43 kilometres east of downtown Dakar. It serves as the main airport for Dakar, replacing Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport, which had become too small."

[S.o.S.]

Hello nghenderson and welcome to the cabin of PPRuNe.

There are so many reasons such as medical problem (staff or pax), fuel problem due to unexpected delays/headwinds etc. If the flight crew did not explain to the pax then it might be that govt business was involved. DSS serves Dakar which is part of the extended Francophone world. If that was the case - you will never know.

[nghenderson]

Thankfully the pax I was concerned about arrived CDG 4+ hours late (missing connections, AF and DL each pinning responsibility on the other - horrible customer service - but eventually AF rebooked). The reason for the diversion turned out to be that Niger denied airspace to the flight, requiring a diversion to Senegal for refueling and a significantly longer route. Recent political/military events in Niger are well known, as well as the perspective that the coup leaders have on their former colonist. What is curious, is that this flight number has done the direct route over Niger in all recent days and is scheduled for the same ETD/ETA tonight - is AF paying attention to politics? Or what happened?

It would also be nice if airlines would actually ANNOUNCE occurrences like this and the reason at least in general terms ... In this case, one of our pax was on medevac and we naturally wondered if this was the reason for the diversion ... Flight tracking provides the fact of the diversion and the times etc. but it seems impossible to know why.

[DaveReidUK]

Whatever the reason, it was a helluva diversion, geographically speaking.

[WHBM]

Niger government made this announcement yesterday about banning French aircraft. It may have even arisen while the flight was in the air. Seems to have made a sudden westward turn while overhead Congo, which sort of points to an unexpected issue in flight - and a reticence by the flight deck to explain. Possibly they didn't have the fuel for the dogleg; the flight next night went direct just to the west of Niger.

[atakacs]

Just wondering
Does Niger have an operational airforce - they supposedly have two Su-25 as their whole "fighter" (more CAS) fleet?
Would they take the risk of downing a civilian airliner even if they could ?
Obviously wouldn't want to be the one to test it but frankly sounds more like grandstanding than anything else 🙄

[Union Jack]

This (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66907517) might shed some light.

Jack

[PAXboy]

I had EXACTLY that kind of diversion in the early-90s. A daylight SABENA from JNB, bouncing at FIH [Kinshasa] and on to BRU. We were almost on the 'doorstep' of Algeria when they closed their airspace without warning. We had to make a long westward trek before turning north to bounce at CMN [Casablanca] for fuel and very late in BRU, missed connections. Airline were good and put me and others into airport hotel. It must have cost them a ton of money. I was fortunate to be in C, so the extra time on board was not a problem. I recall the trip very well, I was upstairs on a 747-300. Service was poor, food average but the seat very comfortable. Apart from the squalling baby, which required my noise cancelling headphones at higher level. Of course, no mobile phones or cabin seat phones to warn my lady not to go to LHR. As it was a connection, there was no information as to why I was not on the flight and very late before I could phone her from the hotel.

[meleagertoo]

How did the crew manage to extend their duty by four hours on such a long trip? Sounds highly unlikely, or do they have a heavy crew?

[wiggy]

Don't know the ins and out of AFs scheduling agreements but I really can't imagine they wouldn't have had a heavy on that route...pretty much all the European legacy outfits I'm aware of have at least one extra pilot on their equivalent routes from that part of the world.

Any additives due to heavy crewing plus captain's discretion on top (? three hours) can give you a fairly lengthy allowable duty period.....

[Mr Mac]

Wiggy
Totally agree as SLF and have had interesting routes North due to either Political changes underneath the route or more often weather over Africa. I can quite understand why Swallows and maybe Swifts draw breath after crossing the area metaphorically. Another area at certain times of year running towards Singapore/ Bangkok out of Dubai.

Closest encounter with cataclysmic effects was been on LH tracking behind AF from BA . I met the Captain while stretching my legs in the galley when stretching my legs post ITC and I was talking to CSD in English and he did not realise I spoke German when he spoke to her. When he realised I understood, he said it was terrible listening to ATC calling for AF and hearing no reply. I said, and he agreed that we had all been through worse, and could not understand what had happened, but we’re pretty sure survivors would be limited. He said not to say anything during flight which I obviously complied with.

Cheers
Mr Mac