An Air France A350-900 that was operating flight AF291 between Osaka-Kansai (KIX), in Japan, and Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) on May 28, 2023, was forced to declare an emergency at 11.00 JST and return to the airport of departure after, apparently, having its nose cone damaged by bird strike.
The decision to turn back was taken about 30 minutes into the flight, when the aircraft had already reached its cruising altitude of 35,000ft after the pilots reported a technical malfunction affecting the aircraft’s weather radar and speedometer.
Pictures have emerged on social media of the A350’s taxiing at Osaka-Kansai after the emergency landing with its nose cone visibly damaged, likely due to bird strike experienced upon take off.
The aircraft (registration F-HTYO) entered service with Air France barely one year ago and was carrying 324 passengers plus the crew at the time of the incident.