According to The Beijing Daily, “an explosion was heard at the back of the cabin and black smoke was released.” No one was hurt
An Air France plane bound for Paris had to turn around early this Saturday, September 18 in the morning shortly after taking off from Beijing following a “technical incident”, the airline announced, specifying that the aircraft had landed “normally”.
The crew of flight AF393 in Boeing-777 “decided to return to Beijing after 14 minutes of flight due to the detection of a technical incident,” the carrier said in a statement. “The aircraft landed normally in Beijing at 4:03 a.m. (local time)”, or 8:03 p.m. GMT.
According to The Beijing Daily, “an explosion was heard at the back of the cabin and black smoke was released” inside the aircraft. “Fortunately, no one was injured,” writes the local newspaper. Air France did not comment on this information, nor did the Chinese airport authorities.
According to the Air France press release, the customers were taken care of by the company “and will be rerouted to Paris as soon as possible”. “Maintenance interventions will be carried out on the aircraft concerned before it is put back into service,” added the carrier, without specifying whether it intended to use the same device for the stranded passengers. The flight was initially expected in Paris at 7:45 am local time.