An Air France Boeing 777-300ER operating flight AF895 from Fort-de-France to Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle executed an emergency return on the night of 21 February after a dramatic engine surge sent flames shooting from the right-hand GE90. The aircraft, carrying 469 passengers and crew, landed safely back in Martinique 25 minutes after take-off.
Videos filmed from the ground show intermittent fire bursts as the engine “coughed” during climb-out. Air France later confirmed a compressor surge—an airflow disruption that causes brief but spectacular combustion inside the engine—as the cause. While less severe than an uncontained failure, protocol required the crew to shut down the affected power-plant and head for the nearest suitable airport.
With hotels on the island already busy for Carnival season, the airline scrambled to accommodate hundreds of disrupted travellers. A relief aircraft was dispatched from Paris the following morning, but many passengers missed Sunday connections to onward European and Asian destinations. Several corporates told local media they lost a full business day and incurred re-ticketing costs for connecting legs not booked on a through fare.
![Engine surge forces Air France Boeing 777 to turn back to Martinique, stranding nearly 500 passengers]()
Alongside building extra time into itineraries, companies can avoid additional disruption by ensuring their travellers’ documents remain valid and adaptable. Online facilitator VisaHQ, for instance, offers rapid visa and passport assistance for France and worldwide destinations, with real-time tracking and 24/7 support that proves invaluable when sudden schedule changes strike. Learn more at https://www.visahq.com/france/
The incident puts fresh spotlight on long-haul contingency planning for companies that base teams in France’s overseas territories. Martinique’s Aimé-Césaire airport has limited wide-body maintenance capacity, meaning replacement jets must fly in from the mainland—a minimum nine-hour turnaround. Travel-risk consultants advise firms to build buffer days into itineraries during the February–March peak, when the Fort-de-France–Paris corridor is often fully booked.
The French civil-aviation authority (DGAC) has opened a routine investigation. GE Aviation said it is assisting and stressed that compressor surges, while visually alarming, are “well-understood and safely managed events”. Nevertheless, the incident underscores how a single technical glitch on an ultra-long sector can ripple across Europe’s tightly-timed business-travel schedules.
Videos filmed from the ground show intermittent fire bursts as the engine “coughed” during climb-out. Air France later confirmed a compressor surge—an airflow disruption that causes brief but spectacular combustion inside the engine—as the cause. While less severe than an uncontained failure, protocol required the crew to shut down the affected power-plant and head for the nearest suitable airport.
With hotels on the island already busy for Carnival season, the airline scrambled to accommodate hundreds of disrupted travellers. A relief aircraft was dispatched from Paris the following morning, but many passengers missed Sunday connections to onward European and Asian destinations. Several corporates told local media they lost a full business day and incurred re-ticketing costs for connecting legs not booked on a through fare.
Alongside building extra time into itineraries, companies can avoid additional disruption by ensuring their travellers’ documents remain valid and adaptable. Online facilitator VisaHQ, for instance, offers rapid visa and passport assistance for France and worldwide destinations, with real-time tracking and 24/7 support that proves invaluable when sudden schedule changes strike. Learn more at https://www.visahq.com/france/
The incident puts fresh spotlight on long-haul contingency planning for companies that base teams in France’s overseas territories. Martinique’s Aimé-Césaire airport has limited wide-body maintenance capacity, meaning replacement jets must fly in from the mainland—a minimum nine-hour turnaround. Travel-risk consultants advise firms to build buffer days into itineraries during the February–March peak, when the Fort-de-France–Paris corridor is often fully booked.
The French civil-aviation authority (DGAC) has opened a routine investigation. GE Aviation said it is assisting and stressed that compressor surges, while visually alarming, are “well-understood and safely managed events”. Nevertheless, the incident underscores how a single technical glitch on an ultra-long sector can ripple across Europe’s tightly-timed business-travel schedules.
