Jet loses power midair, drops 13,000ft

Plane nearly crashed into active volcano

An Air France passenger jet almost crashed into a volcano in a journey across central Africa.Disaster was averted when alarms sounded in the cockpit telling pilots to “pull up“ as they neared Mt Cameroon on May 2. None of the 37 people on board were injured during the incident and the plane landed safely.

Officials from French air authority the BEA have opened an investigation into the incident, which is has been classified as “controlled flight toward terrain”. Flight AF953 had been travelling from Malabo, the capita of Equatorial Guinea, to Douala in Cameroon on the first leg of its journey to Paris. It took off in the dark at 7.51pm local time in bad weather, which forced the pilots to change their usual course to avoid a thunderstorm. A spokesperson for Air France said the Boeing 777-200 was at cruising altitude when the diversion took its “trajectory close to Mount Cameroon”. The active volcano, which last erupted in 2012, stands at more than 13,250ft and is the highest point in central Africa. When its proximity was detected by the plane’s warning system, an alarm sounded in the cockpit and the pilots immediately pulled up. The flight continued on to its destination without any further incidents and landed at 8.35pm. A spokesperson for Air France said the manoeuvre was carried out in line with training and Boeing guidance.

A Singapore Airlines (SIA) Airbus plane carrying 194 people temporarily lost power to both engines on a recent flight to Shanghai, SIA confirmed as a flight tracker said the plane had to descend 13,000 feet (3.96km) before normal operation was restored.The carrier said it was investigating the May 23 incident together with Airbus and engine manufacturer RollsRoyce. “We are not able to provide further information but we can confirm that the same aircraft was used for the return flight,“ an airline spokesman said.In a statement, SIA said the Airbus A330-300, carrying 182 passengers and 12 crew members, “encountered bad weather at 39,000 feet about three and a half hours after departure“ from Singapore. “Both engines experienced a temporary loss of power and the pilots followed operational procedures to restore normal operation of the engines,“ it said. “The flight continued to Shanghai and touched down uneventfully at 10.56pm(1456 GMT) local time,“ it said. It added that the engines “were thoroughly inspected and tested upon arrival in Shanghai with no anoma ies detected“.

In a Twitter post industry portal Flightradar24 said the flight, codenamed SQ836, “lost pow er on both engines & 13,000 feet before power returned“.In a subsequent post, it said the plane “lost both engines during the cruise“ while flying through a “huge storm“, pinpointing an area in the South China Sea off China’s southern coast where the incident occurred.SIA, Asia’s third largest carrier by market value, currently has 29 Airbus A330-300s in its passenger fleet. It also has a fleet of 19 Airbus A380800 superjumbos. The airline, along with its subsidiaries SilkAir, Scoot, and Tiger Airways, flies to 119 destinations across 35 countries.