In the last few moments, an Air Senegal Airbus A321 has declared an emergency over France and has returned back to Chateauroux.
Operating HC4002, which appears to be some form of a charter or repositioning flight, the aircraft declared an emergency not long after departing Chateauroux.
This is a developing story.
UPDATE #1 @ 1728 UK time – HC4002 is being operated by 6V-AMC, an Airbus A321 belonging to Air Senegal. The aircraft is 20 years old at the time of writing.
UPDATE #2 @ 1729 UK time – Air Senegal Flight HC4002 is currently at 10,000 feet. Potentially depressurization?
UPDATE #3 @ 1730 UK time – At this time, it is unclear where in France the aircraft will be returning to. Potentially Chateauroux, where it originally came from?
UPDATE #4 @ 1732 UK time – Data from Planespotters.net shows that 6V-AMC has been stored in Chateauroux since October 2022, with this expected to be the return of the aircraft to Dakar.
UPDATE #5 @ 1733 UK time – With the fact the aircraft has been stored in the France-based airport, it can be assumed that the Air Senegal Airbus A321 will return to Chateauroux.
UPDATE #6 @ 1738 UK time – Air Senegal Flight HC4002 is descending back into Chateauroux. Unclear whether we will lose the ADS-B signal at this time.
UPDATE #7 @ 1741 UK time – At this time, it is still unclear the cause for the u-turn over France, but we know it is some form of emergency currently.
UPDATE #8 @ 1743 UK time – ADS-B data from the flight does indicate some form of fault whilst en route to the cruise before it turned around over France.
UPDATE #9 @ 1745 UK time – As expected, we have lost coverage of the flight, potentially due to the signal in the area. We will update you as soon as we receive any more updates.
UPDATE #10 @ 1748 UK time – We know that the aircraft hasn’t crashed because the ADS-B data goes dead around the same time as it was acquired when it first took off from Chateauroux.
UPDATE #11 @ 1752 UK time – ADS-B signal of the Air Senegal Airbus A321 keeps coming back and dropping. Last seen on the base leg into Chateauroux.
UPDATE #12 @ 1755 UK time – Received reports that Air Senegal HC4002 has safely landed back into the France-based airport, bringing an end to our coverage!
