(REUTERS) — French investigators have opened a probe after an Air France jet with some three dozen people on board narrowly avoided hitting the highest mountain in central Africa in early May, according to information published by France's BEA air accident agency.
The Boeing 777 jet was making a short evening trip from Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, to Cameroon's largest city of Douala where it was due to pick up more passengers en route to Paris, when it ran into bad weather on May 2.
While cruising at about 9,000 feet, the pilots of Flight 953 diverted northwards to avoid storm clouds, but their route back toward Douala took their jetliner toward the 13,000-foot Mount Cameroun, the BEA and the airline said.
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