There was an incredibly close call late Sunday night at the Nice airport in France as two Airbus A320s nearly collided around 11:30 p.m. local time.
Nice was operating its parallel 04 runways (heading ~040°) 04L (left) and 04R (right).
- Nouvelair flight 586 was inbound from Tunis.
- easyJet flight 24706 was headed to Nantes.
Credit: easyJet
The easyJet crew had been cleared to line up and wait on 04R (positioned on the runway, holding for takeoff clearance) while Nouvelair had been cleared to land on 04L. However, instead of lining up with 04L, the Nouvelair crew aligned for 04R — the occupied runway — and continued the approach down to the threshold.
Passengers on the easyJet jet reported a loud noise and strong vibrations. The easyJet captain told the cabin that the other A320 overflew them by about “three meters” (10 feet).
Nouvelair A320 almost collides with an easyJet A320 on the runway at Nice Côte d'Azur airport.
EasyJet flight U24706 had lined up on the runway Sunday evening while Nouvelair flight BJ586 was about to land on the same runway.
The easyJet captain reportedly stated to the… pic.twitter.com/s25F04pSmG
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Nouvelair executed a go-around and landed uneventfully about 12 minutes later. easyJet exited the runway, taxied back, and the flight was canceled for the night. Passengers were rebooked for the following day. France’s accident bureau classified this as a “serious incident” and dispatched investigators to Nice.
Operating in the “04” direction puts both thresholds side-by-side over the water, which demands precise left/right identification by arriving crews. There seems to have been reduced visibility from fog and thunderstorms around the time of the event. Nighttime and degraded visibility increases the risk of mistaking one parallel for the other.
Credit: easyJet
However, the exact cause of why Nouvelair lined up for the wrong runway while another aircraft was on it isn’t yet clear; whether it was in fact visual misidentification in poor conditions, mishearing air traffic control, an issue with runway lighting or mistaken approach selection combined with a breakdown in cross-checking by the cockpit crew.
(HT: JonNYC)
Not … Nice!
Think there’s some confusion on this, Gary. Regardless of what Runway Easyjet 24706 was cleared to line up on, they lined up on 4R. Also, regardless of what Runway Nouvelair 586 was cleared to land on, they attempted to land on 4R as well. The investigation will clear this up easily.
Wonder if Captain Steeeve will do a video on this incident. He’s really into near-middairs. I like his stuff.
Wonderful – landing there in early November on a flight from LHR so one more thing to think about.
Too damn close to coming another Tenerife disaster.
@George Navarini — That’s a bit hyperbolic. Two a320s… vs. two 747s…
Still amazed Air Canada was allowed to continue flying into the US after the near disaster in SFO without making any changes to their (lack of) safety culture.
Was the easyJet flight canceled due to the pilots being shook up? I doubt most of the passengers knew anything about what happened before the pilot announcement.
@jns — Didn’t something like this happen recently in Mexico City with an Aeromexico 737 nearly landing on a Delta 737? Ironically, the only reason I knew about that incident was that Captain Steeeve covered it. They did cancel the Delta flight afterwards. An unfortunate disruption for those affected. More of an ATC and language issues in that case. Hmm.
@1990. I didn’t note it at the time, but yes, an incident happened on July 22. I cannot find any information about the cause, such as ATC error or pilot error. The AeroMéxico airplane was an ERJ-190. The Delta flight was delayed by a trip back to the gate but not canceled per reports.
No mystery here, they selected 4R for their localizer setting instead of 4L The nav aids are highly accurate and it’s very unlikely they’d be shooting a visual approach at night, in possibly iffy weather on a parallel runway. Not appropriate to announce to the PAX what had happened either.
They may end up unemployed for this.
@jns — Yes! That’s the one!
https://youtu.be/_sW_YVCgL3o?feature=shared
The easyJet crew making a PA to the pax’s and then canceling is perhaps the stupidest thing that happened here. There was no explanation as to why Nouelair went around…ATC issued or saw the EasyJet, sounds as if multiple sources at fault. During low visibility operations the tower should not have issued a line up and wait for EasyJet on parallel runways. In the US parallel runways are given different identifiers, once identified as 17L/17R now 17/18 or 27L/27R now 27/28 to alleviate confusion.