LONDON – In the last hour, a SAUDIA Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, operating SV112 from London Heathrow, declared an emergency and diverted to Paris.
HZ-AR11 was the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner operating the SV112 rotation for SAUDIA, with the aircraft declaring a 7700 General Emergency squawk over Belgium at 1917 UTC.
SAUDIA Flight SV112 initially departed London Heathrow at 1801 local time.
From there, the aircraft headed south in the direction of Paris Charles de Gaulle before landing on Runway 27L at the Paris-based airport.
At the time of writing, HZ-AR11 is a six-year-old airframe with SAUDIA, having been delivered to the carrier in June 2017.
At this time, it is unclear what the cause of the emergency was, but it was serious enough to cause a diversion to Paris Charles de Gaulle.
What we do know is that the cause of the emergency was serious enough to create a decision to divert into Paris.
At this time, it is unclear when the aircraft will depart CDG and carry on to Jeddah, it ultimately depends on the nature of the emergency itself.
If it is a medical emergency, then the aircraft could head back out to Jeddah, but again would be dependent on if the crews have enough hours left.
Anything technical with the aircraft will cause it to be grounded until fixes can be applied to the aircraft.
This is a developing story.
UPDATE #1 @ 2048 UK time – It appears the cause of the diversion came from the galley oven overheating, resulting in smoke and heat being created in the cabin.
