Bomb alert : good practices

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  • christopheL
    Participant

    Today a CA flight flying from CDG to PEK (CA876) had to fly back to Paris following a bomb alert.

    Fortunately everything went well but t appears that this flight made a U-turn to come back to CDG (200 km away) even if it was only a very few km away from LIL, CRL or BRU where it could have land within no more than 10 minutes.

    Does anyone know why they had to come back to Paris ? (AFAIK there were no ATC strike in France or Belgium today !)


    fqtvgla
    Participant

    I’d imagine it would take some time to dump fuel as the plane would be too heavy to land so their best course of action would be to do so as they returned to Paris.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    I don’t know about police procedures in France, but in the UK London Stansted is the designated airport to receive these sort of diversion – perhaps CDG performs the same role for Paris?

    As for overweight landing, I doubt that would be a major consideration if the bomb threat was taken seriously.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    CDG would make sense as the airline would have full staff there although safety considerations would be expected to override commercial ones, but as FDOS says, CDG is probably the designate for security related diverts.

    An overweight landing can cause serious structural damage, up to and including a hull write-off.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=878255]An overweight landing can cause serious structural damage, up to and including a hull write-off.[/quote]

    That’s true (if very overweight – otherwise an inspection will be required), but an effective bomb will do the same and then the wreckage may fall on a populated area.


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    Interesting to see the incident report eventually and it may not have been a serious threat and only requiring a precautionary landing after dumping fuel.
    Second worst pax of the week at FT was only blamed for “not following the rules” when he called a hijack after the Indigo ‘plane had landed at its destination!


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    Extraordinary

    https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/air-china-flight-returns-safely-to-paris-after-suspected-terrorist-threat

    “France’s state service for airport security later explained that the threat had turned out to be a false alarm resulting from a misunderstanding between the company and a passenger who arrived late for the flight at Charles de Gaulle airport.

    “A passenger who was delayed due to an abandoned suitcase at Roissy (Charles de Gaulle) airport telephoned the company saying there had been a bomb at the terminal,” the security service said.

    “The person he talked to thought he said that there was a bomb on the plane.”

    A judiciary enquiry has been launched against the man – an Australian according to a source close to the investigation – and he had been detained.”

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