Easyjet flight got here inside 178ft of airplane whereas touchdown, report finds

An easyJet passenger airliner carrying 179 folks got here inside simply 178ft (54 metres) of one other flight because it tried to land in Bordeaux after a controller ‘forgot’ a airplane was already on the runway, a report has concluded.

The Airbus A320, travelling from London Gatwick, was making ready to land on the Bordeaux-Mérignac airport on New Year’s Eve final yr when an error by air site visitors management noticed it authorised to land as one other plane was making ready to take off.

Now, a French investigative physique has deemed the encounter a ‘critical accident’ which they pinned on ATC forgetting the smaller DR400 was on the runway whereas clearing the 123ft A320, weighing as much as 172 tonnes, to land on the identical strip.

It got here as ‘the shift supervisor… had lowered the variety of controllers to a few’ from six on the day of the near-accident, an investigative report by BEA has concluded.

Only seven seconds after telling the easyJet flight it was clear to land, a controller instructed them to abort the strategy, the airplane now simply 40 metres (131ft) above the bottom.

The report cited a number of contributing elements permitting the near-disaster to unfold, together with a ‘important lower in staffing ranges’ which left one controller working 4 stations on the similar time ‘probably resulting in the oversight’.

The investigation concluded the ‘consciousness and proactive motion’ of the DR400 pilot, intercepting communications and warning ATC, prevented the error from changing into a probably devastating accident.

A surprising photograph included within the BEA report confirmed the strategy of the massive A320 airliner with the DR400 nonetheless on the runway.

The investigation, translated from French, reviewed that the controller cleared the DR400 to maneuver to the runway however maintain its place resulting from wake turbulence because the easyJet A320 awaited touchdown clearance.

As site visitors grew to become ‘very dense’, the controller then authorised the A320 to land, ‘forgetting the presence of the DR400 on the threshold’.

‘The DR400 pilot, having understood that the A320 was authorised to land whereas nonetheless at threshold 23, reported to the controller who instantly ordered the A320 to abort the strategy’.

The controller reportedly appeared ‘misplaced’ because the Airbus requested steerage. 

The airliner, now at a top of 232ft and 3280ft (1,000 metres) from the brink of runway 23, soared over the DR400 at a top of 178ft, in line with the report.

The DR400 was later cleared for takeoff and the A320 made a protected touchdown on the second try ‘with none explicit occasion’.  

The report famous the crew piloting the Airbus have been each ‘skilled of their capabilities’ – one with 9,000 and the opposite with 2,100 hours of flight time – though one ‘indicated that he doesn’t perceive French properly’ whereas awaiting clearance to land.

But it was the fast considering of the DR400 pilot that averted catastrophe; the pilot, out flying recreationally, was not certified for English language telephony however understood that the controller was authorising the Airbus to land whereas he was on the brink of take off on the identical strip.

‘The sequence appeared unusual to him,’ BEA famous. At the time, he didn’t think about the controller may have forgotten he was ready to take off and ‘believed that situational consciousness was shared’. 

But nonetheless he fed again that he was nonetheless on the runway – giving the crew seconds to avert catastrophe.

The incident befell in ‘good climate, with little wind’, the report famous.

MailOnline was unable to achieve easyJet for remark.