A Corsair Airbus A330-300 bound for the Caribbean made an emergency landing in Paris this afternoon.

The jet F-HJAZ (c/n 1077) was just under an hour into flight SS742, which connects Lyon with Pointe-a-Pitre on the island of Guadeloupe.

While flying at 36,000ft, the widebody made a U-turn as it entered the Bay of Biscay and set course for the French capital.

In the turn, the jet began a descent to 32,000ft and approximately five minutes after levelling off at that altitude it started a further descent to 10,000ft.

Unusually, the A330 then flew along at that level for more than 20 minutes before beginning its descent into Paris/Orly.

In a statement to Key.Aero, the airline said the aircraft diverted “following a technical problem”.

It added that passengers would be accommodated in Parisian hotels and that the flight will take off from Orly bound for Pointe-a-Pitre tomorrow morning at 10.30am.

“Corsair asks customers to please accept its apologies for this inconvenience,” the statement concludes.

The 13-year-old aircraft – which was formerly operated by Aeroflot – was delivered to the French charter airline in February 2020.

Powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 700s, the European-built widebody is configured to seat 298 passengers in a three-class layout.

Corsair – which is based at Orly – operates a fleet of nine A330s comprising four -300s and five -900s.