Air France Flight to Newark Returns to Paris Amid Technical Issues

On October 21, an Air France Boeing 787 operating AF62 to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) returned to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) amidst reports of an oil leak onboard. Air France flight AF62 is a routine flight between CDG and EWR, with last night’s emergency involving F-HRBH.

According to Planespotters.net, F-HRBH is a 4.5-year-old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner delivered to the airline in April 2019. The airline’s fleet of Dreamliners consists of 10 of the -9 variant, of which all 10 are in active service at the time of writing. They have an average age of 5.4 years at the time of writing.

Initial findings suggest that Air France flight AF62, originally bound for New York, decided to turn around due to a possible oil leak on one of the engines. Such information is yet to be confirmed; however, early speculation suggested that it was a hijack attempt, despite no broadcast of the 7500 squawk code nor communication with Air Traffic Control.

AF62 turned around around 8:04 p.m. UTC, heading back to Paris rather than continuing across the Atlantic to New York. Around an hour and 40 minutes later, the jet made a safe arrival back into CDG, and the plane had not been in the air since its return.