Air France Airbus A330-200
Taken by @ismaviation on Instagram
On Saturday, the 11th of April, Air France Airbus A330-200 was shot at twice while landing in Pointe-Noire in the Congo. The airline was performing a repatriation flight to collect 100 French nationals when an Airport Gendarme shot twice at the aircraft, puncturing through the fuselage while the second hit the tarmac.
Flight AF4145 came from Paris (CDG/LFPG) and landed at 8PM local time. It has been revealed that the weapon used was a PMAK assault rifle used by the gendarme on duty. He has arrested and taken into custody because of this act. Thankfully, no one was injured. Local reports have stated that the person firing the weapon may have been intoxicated and there is no known reason at why he shot the aircraft.
The plane registered F-GZCK, was set to head to Bangui in the Central African Republic to collect another 120 more passengers. A rescue Boeing 777-200 was soon after on its way to replace the Airbus A330 after this incident. The Airbus A330 thankfully was carrying a team of Air France technicians to fix the damage done to the aircraft. There was a delay of 24 hours before the plane re-continued its flight back to France via Bangui. In response the attack, Air France Newsroom tweeted that: “The flight scheduled for 10:00 am was postponed for 24 hours in order to allow a replacement aircraft and a crew to be transported from Paris CDG. Customers have been warned and taken care of by our local teams. The safety of our customers and our crews is our top priority.”
Air France have undergone multiple repatriation flights since the outbreak of this pandemic. Other repatriation flights were to Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles. There has also been a myriad of repatriation flights within Africa such as Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Conakry in Guinea, Cotonou in Benin, Liberville in Gabon and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They have also went to their French oversea territories such as Cayenne , Pointe-à-Pierre, Fort-de-France, Saint Denis and La Réunion. The airline has had a reasonable and understanding approach when it comes to their fairs. They have a fixed fare! Other airlines are abusing the fact that people are anxious to get home during these dangerous conditions and are charging thousands for their tickets.
Aircraft being shot at is extremely rare. However, it has occurred before in the past and has even caused some causalities. In January 2015, FlyDubai Boeing 737 was shot at on arrival to Baghdad Airport, Iraq. Three airlines suspended these flights to the city after the incident. Fortunately, nobody was injured.
However, in June 2014, Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A310 was hit 8 times by bullets while landing at Peshawar. One passenger was killed and three flight attendants were injured. A bullet merely missed the captain.
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