Air France Flight Drops Nearly 4,000 Feet Per Minute, Diverts to Lyon

An Air France Airbus A320 has experienced technical difficulties shortly after departure, forcing the jet to divert to Lyon. No one on board was injured, and passengers were able to continue their journey on other transport.

Flight Details

On Saturday, December 20th, 2025, Air France Flight 7562 was scheduled to fly from Paris Orly Airport to Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport in Ajaccio. There were 173 passengers on board. 

Operating the flight was F-HBNJ, a 14.1-year-old Airbus A320-214.

The flight was scheduled to depart at 5:10 PM and land at 6:50PM, French time (GMT+1). It departed Paris at 5:20 PM. However, after the aircraft reached its cruising altitude of 39,000 feet, passengers reported strong vibrations and hearing onboard alarms from the cockpit. Others recalled seeing yellow flashes or flames near the wing.

A passenger gave the following interview to ICI RCFM (France Bleu RCFM):

“I saw large yellow flashes. They were flames. The plane dropped, then we realized it was an emergency landing”

However, according to Aviation Today, Air France clarified that there were no engine fires and that no smoke warnings were activated during the flight. The engine exhaust area could have produced some ‘brief flames’, however this does not indicate that there was an in-flight fire.

Just 42 minutes after takeoff, at around 6:02 PM, the aircraft started an emergency descent towards Lyon. Six minutes later, the aircraft declared an emergency.

FlightRadar24 data shows that the A320 had reached vertical speeds of up to -4000ft per minute, which is remarkable for an average airliner. For reference, an airliner typically descends at 1000~2500 ft/min.

According to the AFP, the vibrations calmed down once the problematic engine was shut down. The flight landed safely at Lyon Saint-Exupery Airport at 6:25 PM local time, 23 minutes after diverting. While the passengers may have been frightened, no one on board was injured.

The Aftermath

In Lyon, Air France offered all 173 passengers a flight to Bastia. The flight departed Lyon at 10:39PM local time, 4 hours and 14 minutes after the emergency landing. It arrived at Bastia at 11:50PM, approximately 70 minutes later. Passengers were then offered bus service to Ajaccio to complete their journey. The bus finally arrived at Ajaccio at 3AM the next day, approximately 8 hours behind schedule.

Air France has maintained that there was no in-flight fire, and that no smoke alarms were activated throughout the flight. Experts speculate that the Airbus has suffered from an engine surge or a compressor stall. These type of events occur when airflow in a jet engine is disturbed, with the formation of air pockets inside the engine. This unwanted volume causes sudden surges in the operation of an engine, followed by large bangs and vibrations felt throughout the fuselage.

Air France has expressed regret for the disruption and reiterated that passenger and crew safety remained the company’s top priority throughout the event.

F-HBNJ, the aircraft involved in the incident, remains at Lyon Saint-Exupery Airport as of the time of writing.