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Qatar Airways flight 787 loses height after take off

In the early morning hours of 10 January, Qatar Airways flight 161 departed Doha bound for Copenhagen. At 22:59 UTC (01:59 local time) the Boeing 787-8 lifted off from Hamad International Airport’s Runway 16L. But less than two minutes later the flight had descended to just 800 feet before recovering and climbing again. The flight arrived in Copenhagen six hours later.

Qatar Airways statement

Qatar Airways provided the following statement. An earlier version of this post erroneously stated there was a delay in reporting the event. We regret the error.

Qatar Airways is aware of an event relating to flight QR161 operating Doha to Copenhagen on 10 January 2023. It was immediately reported to authorities and an internal investigation is being carried out. The airline follows the most stringent standards of safety, training and reporting and is working to address any findings in line with industry norms.

Descent after departure

Qatar Airways flight 161 lifted off the runway at 22:59:58Z.737 UTC climbing to reach an altitude of 1850 feet AMSL at 23:01:04Z.864. Turning left the aircraft then descended to as low as 800 ft at 23:01:33Z.374 before climbing again. At points during the 28 second period the aircraft was descending, it reached vertical rates of more than -3000 feet per minute.

Download Flightradar24 data

There are three files available for download below. The standard CSV and KML files contain standard frequency data for the entire flight. The granular CSV contains high frequency data for the beginning of the flight, including the descent incident and subsequent climb.

Aircraft information

The aircraft operating flight 161 was a Boeing 787-8 registered A7-BCO. The 787 was delivered new to Qatar Airways in 2014.

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