عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Quiet Please: French Jet's Sonic Boom Shakes Paris, Disrupts Tennis

A picture taken on June 4, 2018, from the observatory deck of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, shows a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Défense business district in the background. (AFP)
A picture taken on June 4, 2018, from the observatory deck of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, shows a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Défense business district in the background. (AFP)
TT
20
TT

Quiet Please: French Jet's Sonic Boom Shakes Paris, Disrupts Tennis

A picture taken on June 4, 2018, from the observatory deck of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, shows a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Défense business district in the background. (AFP)
A picture taken on June 4, 2018, from the observatory deck of the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, shows a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Défense business district in the background. (AFP)

A French fighter jet broke the sound barrier on Wednesday as it scrambled to join a commercial jet that had lost contact with air traffic control, causing a sonic boom that reverberated through Paris and its suburbs, the defense ministry said.

The boom rattled windows, scattered startled birds, briefly interrupted tennis at the French Open and prompted a flood of calls to emergency services.

In a city already tense after a knife attack outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Friday, the blast sent people on to their balconies to see what had caused it and prompted intense messaging on social media.

“A Rafale (warplane) based at Saint-Dizier, intervening to assist an airline which had lost contact, was allowed to break the sound barrier to join the airplane in trouble. It broke the sound barrier east of Paris,” army spokesman colonel Stephane Spet said in a statement.

He added that a seconds after the boom - which happened at an altitude of 10 km and was magnified by cloud cover - the passenger jet, an Embraer 145, reestablished contact with air traffic control.

France’s DGAC civil aviation authority said the warplane was dispatched after contact was lost with two civil aircraft.

It said that one was a Falcon 50, operated by a private Brazilian company, on a flight between Cape Verde and Brussels. The other was an Embraer 145, operated by regional airline Amelia, on a flight between the French cities of Brives and Saint-Brieuc.

DGAC said communication with both aircraft had been restored, adding that it would launch an inquiry into why contact had been lost.

Most Viewed

 
World

Italy Sends Rejected Migrants to Detention Centers in Albania

Police officers stand guard as buses carrying migrants arrive at a facility in Gjader, Albania, 11 April 2025. EPA/DOMENICO PALESSE
Police officers stand guard as buses carrying migrants arrive at a facility in Gjader, Albania, 11 April 2025. EPA/DOMENICO PALESSE
TT
20
TT

Italy Sends Rejected Migrants to Detention Centers in Albania

Police officers stand guard as buses carrying migrants arrive at a facility in Gjader, Albania, 11 April 2025. EPA/DOMENICO PALESSE
Police officers stand guard as buses carrying migrants arrive at a facility in Gjader, Albania, 11 April 2025. EPA/DOMENICO PALESSE

Italian authorities on Friday transferred 40 migrants with no permission to remain in the country to Italian-run migration detention centers in Albania.
It was the first time a European Union country sent rejected migrants to a nation outside the EU that is neither their own nor a country they had transited on their journey, migration experts said.
A military ship with the migrants departed the Italian port of Brindisi and arrived hours later in the Albanian port of Shengjin, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of the capital, Tirana. The migrants were seen being transferred in buses and minivans under heavy security to an Italian-run center in Shengjin, where they will be processed before being transferred to a second center in Gjader, also run by Italian authorities.
The Italian government has not released their nationalities or further details, The Associated Press said.
Both facilities in Shengjin and in Gjader were originally built to process asylum requests of people intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea by Italy. But since their inauguration in October, Italian courts have stopped authorities from using them and small groups of migrants sent there have returned to Italy.
Italy’s far-right-led government of Premier Giorgia Meloni approved a decree last month that expanded the use of the Albanian fast-track asylum processing centers to include the detention of rejected asylum-seekers with deportation orders.
It is not clear how long the migrants may be held in Albania. In Italy they can be detained for up to 18 months pending deportation.
Meloni's novel approach to expel the migrants echoes US President Donald Trump’s recent deportations of migrants of various nationalities to Panama. It's also in line with a recent EU Commission proposal that, if passed, would allow EU members to set up so-called “return hubs” abroad.
Some experts and rights groups question the transfers Migration experts consulted by The Associated Press say it's unclear how legal Italy's actions were. Meghan Benton of the Migration Policy Institute said the move likely will be challenged in court. Speaking from Toulouse, France, Benton said other EU countries are interested in doing the same, including the Netherlands with Uganda.
Francesco Ferri, a migration expert with ActionAid, who was among a group of nongovernmental organizations and Italian lawmakers visiting Albania to follow the migrant transfer, said Italian authorities have failed to clarify what happens to the migrants once they're in Albania. He said there is no legislation in Italian law, nor in EU law, nor in the Albania-Italy agreement that would allow rejected asylum-seekers to be deported directly from Albania, making the purpose of the transfer unclear.
“For us it is unacceptable,” Ferri said.
The Albanian centers opened in October but they remained substantially inactive due to legal hurdles and wide opposition from human rights associations, which believe they violate international laws and put migrants’ rights at risk.
The November 2023 agreement between Italy and Albania— worth nearly 800 million euros over five years — allows up to 3,000 migrants intercepted by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month to be sheltered in Albania and vetted for possible asylum in Italy or repatriation.
Italy has agreed to welcome those migrants who are granted asylum, while those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.
The first three groups of 73 migrants transferred there in October, November and January spent only a few hours in Albania and were returned to Italy after Italian magistrates refused to validate their detention in the non-EU country.
So far this year, 11,438 migrants landed on Italian shores, less than the 16,090 who arrived in the same period last year. Most arrived from Bangladesh, followed by Syria, Tunisia and Egypt, according to the Italian Interior Ministry. Irregular border crossings were 31% lower across the European Union according to figures released Friday by the EU's Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex. ____
Semini reported from Tirana, Albania and Brito from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press journalists Colleen Barry, Giada Zampano and Paolo Santalucia in Rome contributed to this report.