Air France suspends flights over the Red Sea

The flight over the Red Sea was suspended by Air France this Sunday evening, until further notice. In question, the report of a possible “luminous object” above Sudan.

No more Air France planes fly over the Red Sea area. The airline has suspended its flights until further notice “as a precautionary principle”. The announcement was made Sunday evening.

On Sunday, the crew of an Air France plane spotted a “luminous object” at high altitude in the Sudan area. Two flights which had taken off from Paris then turned around, three others changed their routes to avoid the area.

Air France assures that it does not know the exact nature of the object seen, but as a precaution the airline is suspending its flights over the entire Red Sea area.

A busy route

An air corridor that is nevertheless very busy, particularly since the closure of Ukrainian skies due to the conflict with Russia, explains Jean Serrat, former captain.

“All flights departing from Europe and going to Asia all pass through the Middle East zone. So it’s absolutely enormous traffic,” he assures.

If the duration of certain flights is extended because of this bypass, the company points out that the safety of its customers and crews is its absolute imperative.

On October 1, an Air France Paris-Dubai flight was over Iraq for 15 minutes after the start of the Iranian attack on Israel. The pilots of flight AF662 “saw the missiles from the cockpit”, assured LCI. Information that Air France did not wish to comment on. An “internal investigation” was opened following this incident by Air France.