France A359 near Osaka on May 28th 2023, weather radar and airspeed malfunction
Last Update: December 8, 2025 / 14:39:48 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
May 28, 2023
Classification
Incident
Airline
Air France
Flight number
AF-291
Departure
Osaka, Japan
Destination
Paris Charles de Gaulle, France
Aircraft Registration
F-HTYO
Aircraft Type
Airbus A350-900
ICAO Type Designator
A359
Japan's Ministry of Transport reported a post flight inspection revealed a dent at the nose of the aircraft, that was not present before the flight. The malfunctions of weather radar and airspeed are thought to be related to the dent. The cause of the dent, possibly a bird strike, is under investigation.
On Jun 15th 2023 the French BEA reported they opened an investigation into the occurrence rated a serious incident and reported: "Thirty minutes after takeoff, a radome failure leads to multiple flight systems failures. The crew declares itself in MAYDAY and returns to the departure aerodrome."
The aircraft returned to service on Jun 9th 2023.
On Dec 8th 2025 the French BEA released their final report concluding the probable causes of the incident were:
The following factors may have contributed to the non-detection of the damage on the inner wall of the radome during maintenance operations in connection with the flights preceding the incident flight:
- Probable insufficient awareness and training of maintenance technicians in the risks caused by a bird, hail, lightning or other FOD strike on a composite structure. This lack of knowledge can result in the technicians failing to apply all of the manufacturer’s maintenance tasks. Thus, in the event of a bird strike, it would seem that, in many cases, if technicians do not observe damage on the outer surface of the radome, they do not inspect the inner face despite this being a requirement of the maintenance task.
- A maintenance task pertaining to a radar fault that does not guarantee the systematic detection of damage to the inner wall of the radome; the deformation of the composite structure may differ in flight and on the ground and impair the operation of the other systems, especially the weather radar, in different ways.
The following factors may have contributed to the crew’s insufficient knowledge of the operation of the NAIADS equipping the Airbus A350:
- The drafting and organisation of information pertaining to the NAIADS in the manufacturer’s documentation (FCOM and FCTM) that probably do not enable pilots to have a clear understanding of the functioning of this system.
- Limited simulator training, not closely related to the operational conditions in which this type of fault can occur.
Incident Facts
Date of incident
May 28, 2023
Classification
Incident
Airline
Air France
Flight number
AF-291
Departure
Osaka, Japan
Destination
Paris Charles de Gaulle, France
Aircraft Registration
F-HTYO
Aircraft Type
Airbus A350-900
ICAO Type Designator
A359
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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