Air Senegal Airbus A330-900 between Paris and Dakar diverts to Agadir but the reason why remains unclear

On 17 December, Air Senegal flight HC4040 between Paris Charles De Gaulle, France and Dakar, Senegal didn’t go as expected when – during the flight – an emergency occurred. The pilots swiftly took the decision to divert to Agadir, Morocco. Passengers told Senegalese media channels that the Airbus A330-941 (registered 9H-SZN) faced a kerosene leak, hence the diversion, but that information was quickly denied by the airline. 

In fact, Air Senegal wrote in a press statement, that the pilots were forced to make the diversion due to a medical emergency on board.

Why the aircraft only departed Agadir destination Chateauroux, France two days later and not departed towards Dakar straight after the handling of the medical emergency remains a question mark. But the airline has another explanation: as Agadir is not a regular Air Senegal destination, some organisational problems occurred.

The airline dispatched a rescue aircraft towards Agadir to pick up the stranded passengers, and operated the next flight between Paris CDG and Dakar with the help of Bulgarian ACMI carrier GullivAir, operating an Airbus A330-200 registered LZ-AWY.