“The plane found itself in the middle of hostilities”: Air France opens an “internal investigation” after a flight during the Iranian missile attack

LThe Air France company announced on Wednesday that it had opened an “internal investigation” concerning the flight over Iraqi territory on 1^is October of one of its aircraft, linking Paris to Dubai, at the time when the Iranian missile attack towards Israel began.

« The 1^is October, information identified an upcoming attack on Israel by Iran with the sending of ballistic missiles. Consequently, and without waiting for instructions from the Iraqi authorities, Air France has decided to suspend flights over the country’s airspace by its planes from 5 p.m. universal time (i.e. 7 p.m. Paris time),” indicates a press release from the company transmitted to AFP.

Air France specifies that that day, its flight AF662, connecting Paris CDG to Dubai, “was flying over southern Iraq when the Iranian attack began, around 4:45 p.m. universal time. It left the country’s airspace shortly before 5 p.m. Iraqi airspace was only officially closed by local authorities at 5:56 p.m. universal time,” it said.

The press release recalls that Air France aircraft “already avoided Israeli, Lebanese and Iranian airspace” and that “flying over Iraqi airspace was limited to a specific corridor used by all airlines”.

A spokesperson for the company told AFP that “an internal investigation has been opened into this event”.

“The light must be shed”

Ballistic missiles travel at a higher altitude than airliners fly. But according to LCI, the pilots of flight AF662 “saw the missiles from the cockpit”, information that Air France did not wish to comment on.

Questioned by LCI, Laurent Veque, member of the office of the National Union of Airline Pilots, declared that “the facts are established and known, the plane found itself in this Iraqi corridor in the middle of the hostilities unleashed by Iran against Israel.”

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“The light must be shed (…) The Health, Safety and Working Conditions Commission (CSSCT) will certainly be contacted today, we want to know what happened,” he added.

Iran said it launched 200 missiles against Israel on 1^is October, after the death, on September 27, of the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, killed by an Israeli missile in the southern suburbs of Beirut, at the same time as an Iranian general. According to Tehran, 90% reached their target, while the Israeli army assured that a large number had been intercepted.

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