Investigators say an Air France flight full of passengers flew dangerously close to an active volcano earlier this month after the pilots veered off course during a storm.

The flight was somewhere over Cameroon on May 2 when the pilot deviated from the flight route, apparently to avoid a nearby thunderstorm. Via the 24-hour flight news channel CNN:

As the aircraft turned back toward its destination, the city of Douala in Cameroon, it got too close to Mount Cameroon, the highest mountain in the region whose volcano is still active, said the BEA, France’s air accident investigation agency.

The “pull up” alarm started sounding and the pilots responded by ascending from 9,000 feet to 13,000 feet, the BEA said. The alarm stopped and the flight went on to land in Douala, it added.

In a list of open investigations, the agency described the close shave as “a serious incident” that involved “controlled flight into or toward terrain.”

The pilots will reportedly undergo “more training,” and Air France has pledged to provide them with more information about “the specifics of the land around Douala.”

Image via AP. Contact the author of this post at gabrielle@gawker.com