The pilots of a Nouvelair plane that nearly landed on top of an EasyJet aircraft at Nice Airport last month probably weren’t even aware of how close they came to disaster, and only performed a ‘go around’ after they had already roared over the other jet, and only then at the request of air traffic control.
The terrifying revelation came to light on Wednesday after the French BEA accident investigation agency published its preliminary report into the near-catastrophic near miss.
Flight details
- EasyJet flight U2-4706 from Nice to Nantes
- Nouvelair flight BJ-586 from Tunis to Nice
A recap of what happened
On Sunday, September 21, an Airbus A320 single-aisle airplane operated by Tunisian airline Nouvelair came within approximately 10 feet of landing on top of another A320 operated by EasyJet.
The incident occurred during bad weather that was sweeping across the Côte d’Azur, which had reduced visibility at Nice Airport.
The Nouvelair plane had been cleared to land on Runway 04L, while the pilots of the EasyJet plane had been cleared to line up at the far end of a parallel runway known as 04R in preparation for takeoff.
Rather than correctly lining up to land on Runway 04L, the pilots of the Nouvelair plane lined up to land on 04R. After nearly landing on top of the EasyJet plane, the Nouvelair pilots performed a ‘missed approach’ before landing safely on the correct runway.
What we thought had happened
Until now, it was believed that the pilots of the Nouvelair plane had seen the EasyJet plane at the last moment and performed a go-around to avoid colliding with it. This was corroborated by passengers onboard the EasyJet who heard a loud roar from the engines of the Nouveair plane as it flew over their heads.
It turns out, however, that the pilots of the Nouvelair likely never saw the EasyJet, and it was a stroke of luck that the two planes didn’t collide.
What we now know
The preliminary investigation report has a detailed timeline of exactly what happened in chronological order, and this has revealed that the pilots of the Nouvelair plane were only ordered to perform a go-around after it had already flown over the EasyJet plane.
In the cockpit of the Nouvelair plane, the automated system was calling out the altitude of the aircraft, with a cockpit voice recorder revealing that the system progressively called out 100, 50, 40, and 30-foot callouts.
At the same time that the air traffic controller in the airport tower ordered the pilots to perform a go-around, the automated system was also reading out 20-foot and ‘retard’ callouts, which are the final callouts before touchdown.
Why did air traffic controllers realize what was happening?
The aim of the preliminary accident report isn’t to assign a cause for the accident, but it does raise questions over why the air traffic controllers didn’t realize that the Nouvelair plane had lined up to land on the wrong runway and then take corrective action.
Although visibility was said to be very poor across the airfield, the tower did have some indications that something was very amiss.
Around 50 seconds before the Nouvelair plane flew over the EasyJet aircraft, the tower was given an amber alert of a possible runway incursion by the airport’s Advanced Surface Movement Guidance & Control System.
Around 16 seconds later, the system generated a red alert with both visual and aural warnings in the control tower, alerting the controllers of a potential runway incursion.
Moments later, the pilots of the EasyJet plane spotted the Nouvelair plane, but while they noted that their approach for landing seemed odd, they didn’t think this posed a ‘conflict.’
The tower controller asked the Nouvelair pilots to confirm they were lining up to land on Runway 04L, and they verbally acknowledged they were on ‘short final’ for Runway 04L. In reality, they had lined up to land on Runway 04R.
Are the runway lights at Nice Airport to blame?
Investigators appear to be looking into the possibility that the pilots of the Nouvelair plane became confused by the different runway lights used on Runway 04L and 04R.
In 2022, Runway 04R was equipped with new LED lighting that makes it significantly brighter than 04L, and this isn’t the first time that pilots have mixed up the runways.
The BEA notes in its preliminary report that the “initial investigation seems to indicate that the perceived difference in brightness between the two runways could contribute to this type of confusion.”
The investigation continues.
