A Paris-bound Air France flight AF9, which was a Boeing 777-300ER, took of from New York’s JFK International Airport on August 19, but had to take a U-turn over the Atlantic Ocean after declaring an emergency. Flight tracker FlightAware showed that the flight took off from JFK at 12:28 am local time on Tuesday, but changed course at 1:14 am after declaring ‘Mayday’, and returned to New York.

Pilot declares ‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday’ due to right engine failure

Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” the pilot said in an audio recording shared by LiveATC.net. The pilot later told air traffic controllers that the plane had a right engine failure. Because of this, the crew declared an emergency code 7700, which is used worldwide for distress situations.

The pilot then asked to return to JFK. The plane had 311 people on board including passengers and crew, and 6.5 hours of fuel.

After turning around, the flight went straight back and landed at 2:15 am. The whole journey lasted a little over two hours.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that the flight “returned safely” after the crew reported “a possible engine issue”, reported People. The agency also said that it will investigate the incident.

(Image: FlightRadar24)

Mid-air scare: Another American Airlines flight returned to Boston after experiencing technical failures mid-air

Earlier this week, another American Airlines pilot had also announced ‘mayday’ shortly after takeoff because of several technical problems on board. American Airlines flight 2616 took off on August 16 from Boston Logan International Airport. About 10 minutes into the flight, the crew decided to turn back instead of continuing to Philadelphia.

The audio recordings revealed the pilot reported losing the autopilot, auto-thrust, and noted disagreements between the flight management systems, a People report said. The pilot also mentioned other navigation and automation failures.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the plane returned safely to Boston Logan around 7:30 pm after the crew reported a possible flight system problem.

American Airlines later confirmed that the plane had a maintenance issue. The airline said the aircraft landed safely, taxied to the gate without help, and was taken out of service for inspection by the maintenance team. The airline also apologized to passengers for the inconvenience caused.

The issues related to engine failures and operations mid-flight have been under the lens since the time the fatal Air India plane crash happened in Ahmedabad in June this year that killed all on-board except one. The AAIB preliminary report had said that both the engines had shut down at a gap of one second after the fuel supply was cut off.