France B773 over Northern Italy on Mar 22nd 2018, loss of communication

Last Update: March 22, 2018 / 16:46:54 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 22, 2018

Classification
Incident

Airline
Air France

Flight number
AF-671

Aircraft Registration
F-GZNF

Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-300

ICAO Type Designator
B773

An Air France Boeing 777-300, registration F-GZNF performing flight AF-671 from Reunion (Reunion) to Paris Orly (France), was enroute at FL360 over Italy when Italian Air Force dispatched two fighter aircraft to intercept the Boeing due to loss of communication. The fighter aircraft intercepted the aircraft near Aosta (Italy), just short of the French border, established radio contact and prompted the crew to perform a number of maneouvers to verify the aircraft was not being hijacked and was under full control by the flight crew, the aircraft flew a full circle as part of that verification, too. The aircraft was subsequently handed to French air traffic control and continued to Paris for a safe landing about 50 minutes later.

A number of ground witnesses e-mailed The Aviation Herald about hearing two booms, they believed were sonic booms. A ground observer watched in the Aosta region seeing the contrails of the Boeing and the two fighter aircraft.

Initially Italian Air Force was quoted to state the aircraft entered Italian Airspace in southern Italy without talking to ATC. The Air Force subsequently released a press release stating the aircraft suddenly lost contact with Italian ATC. Two Eurofighter Aircraft were dispatched to intercept the Boeing and verify that the aircraft had not been hijacked.

According to radar data the aircraft had crossed into Italian Airspace from Greek Airspace near Brindisi about 80 minutes prior to entering the full circle.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 22, 2018

Classification
Incident

Airline
Air France

Flight number
AF-671

Aircraft Registration
F-GZNF

Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-300

ICAO Type Designator
B773

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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