Inquiry into Air France flight nearly hitting mountain

French investigators on Wednesday opened an inquiry into a near-accident involving an Air France Boeing 777 which narrowly missed central Africa's highest mountain with 37 people on board.

An automatic "pull-up" alarm went off when the plane, travelling from Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, to Douala, Cameroon's largest city, on May 2, diverted from its normal route "to avoid storms", the French Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA) investigators said.

The manoeuvre had put it on course to hit the 13,255-ft Mount Cameroon, before the alarm prompted the pilots to swiftly gain altitude and miss the mountain, The Local news portal reported.

No one was injured and the plane continued its flight without further incident.

Air France confirmed the incident, saying that it would be carrying out its own internal inquiry.

"A route to avoid a storm brought the plane toward the side of Mount Cameroon," the airline said in a statement.

"The enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) went off in the plane's cockpit and the pilots responded immediately by executing the appropriate manoeuvre," the statement added.