a day ago
Bizarre odor sparks panic on long-distance Air France flight bound for Brazil
A suspicious smell aboard a transatlantic Air France flight sparked panic and forced the plane to make an emergency landing on Monday.
Flight AF460 departed from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Monday at 10:23am bound for Brazil's São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo.
About an hour into the flight, passengers the crew reported an 'unusual odor in the cabin' that smelled like something burning, according to French media reports.
After the crew inspected the galley in the aircraft's executive area but failed to find the source of the odor, the plane's captain alerted air-traffic control.
The Boeing 777-328 was flying 29,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean when it was diverted to Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport in Bordeaux, France.
The aircraft, which was carrying 252 passengers, made an emergency landing at 12:25pm without any issues.
Air France did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for information on the source of the smell.
A video filmed by Gustavo Reis, the former mayor of the Brazilian city of Jaguariúna, claimed to showed fuel being dumped from the plane to reduce the aircraft's weight and provide a safe landing.
'Return flight problems, plane had to dump fuel in the air and make emergency landing in Bordeaux,' read a caption on Reis' Instagram Story.
A separate video posted by Reis showed firefighters inspecting the galley as he and other passengers waited to deplane.
Air France dispatched a new aircraft to Bordeaux later in the day to fly the passengers back to Paris, where another plan would take them to São Paulo.
'Customers were assisted by Air France sales teams at the stopover, who offered them assistance and re-routing solutions as quickly as possible,' the airline said in a statement.
'We regret the inconvenience caused by this situation and reaffirm that the safety of customers and flights is an absolute priority.'
The scare occurred the same day an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for New Delhi had to return to Hong Kong just 15 minutes after takeoff due to a mechanical issue.
Both incidents occurred just four days after an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane crashed moments after taking off from an airport in Ahmedabad.
The plane was bound for London with 242 people on board and slammed into several buildings. All but one passenger was killed, along with about 30 people on the ground.
