An Air France flight bound for Paris was diverted to Montreal last night after an anonymous threat was received, airport officials confirmed.
Flight 083 from San Francisco made an unscheduled stop in Montreal just after 11:20 p.m. ET, said Francois Asselin, a spokesman for Aéroports de Montreal.
Air France confirmed around 4:45 a.m. that the threat was a false alarm.
The plane left for Paris around 6 a.m.
“We were told we had to be diverted for operational reasons by the captain,” passenger Thomas Serval told CBC News. “We were anxious when we landed safely.”
The Boeing 777-300ER was carrying 231 passengers and 15 staff members. The pilot decided to land in Montreal out of precaution, and the plane stayed on the tarmac for some time with passengers on board.
Police and firefighters were called to the scene at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, according to standard procedure.
Gilles Raymond told The Associated Press that he and his fellow passengers spent at least an hour on the plane during verifications after being originally told the diversion was for “technical reasons.”
“Everyone is pretty relaxed,” Raymond said while still inside. “There was no panic, no stress. Everyone is waiting in their seats. Some people are sleeping, and some are checking their phones or eating ice cream that the flight attendants gave them.”
It is not the first time the airline’s flights have been diverted since the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and left hundreds injured.
On Nov. 17, flights bound for France were diverted to Halifax and Salt Lake City, Utah due to anonymous threats later found to be baseless after a sweep of the planes.
CBC News
Air France flights makes emergency landing at St. Petersburg
A Boeing 777 of the French company has made an emergency landing on the runway at the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg.
An aircraft engine had a problem, a source told the news agency RIA Novosoti. But the device, which was flying from Paris to Beijing landed without incident without any injuries being reported.
RT en Français (via Google Translate)
NH-264 suffers mid-flight engine shut down
An ANA All Nippon Airways Boeing 777-200, registration JA712A performing flight NH-264 from Fukuoka to Tokyo Haneda (Japan) with 387 people on board, was climbing out of Fukuoka when the crew observed an unusual exhaust gas temperature (EGT) increase on the left hand engine (PW4077) and shut the engine down. The aircraft returned to Fukuoka for a safe landing about 20 minutes after departure.
Passengers reported the left hand engine emitted a loud boom and streaks of flame.
The airline reported en unusual EGT rise on the #1 engine prompted the crew to shut the engine down and return to Fukuoka.
The Aviation Herald
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