A domestic flight operated by Air France’s regional subsidiary Air France HOP has been forced to make an emergency landing after declaring an emergency en route.
The flight on January 15, 2024, operating from Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG) to Biarritz Angles-Bayonne Airport (BIQ) under flight number AF7480 declared an emergency while heading to its destination but was able to land without further incident.
The flight was operated by one of the carrier’s fleet of Embraer E190-100LR aircraft registered as F-HBLE which is currently 16.3 years old.
Flight 7480, with a scheduled departure time of 09:25 local time, departed Paris at 09:50 for the 90-minute flight south to Biarritz, reaching a cruise altitude of 31,000ft. However, at around 10:40 as the aircraft passed through 12,000ft in its descent towards Biarritz, the crew alerted air traffic controllers that they were facing an emergency and set the aircraft’s transponder to 7700 – the internationally recognized distress code.
The flight subsequently continued to its planned destination airport following the declaration of the emergency. The nature of the emergency prompting the declaration has not been disclosed, although the aircraft made a safe landing at the airport at 10:55 local time.
There was reportedly no harm suffered by either the passengers or crew onboard the flight and all disembarked the plane without further issue. The aircraft remains on the ground at Biarritz at the time of writing.
Air France Hop, formerly known as HOP!, is the regional airline subsidiary of Air France, and operates largely short-haul and medium-haul flights both within France and to other European destinations.
The airline, which took over the former operations of HOP!, operates under the AF flight prefix of its parent company while it inherited and continues to operate the Embraer regional jet fleet formerly operated by its predecessor.
According to ch-aviation, the carrier operates a fleet of 21 Embraer E190-100LRs plus 13 smaller ERJ-170s which seat 100 passengers and 76 passengers respectively.