Runway Nightmare at Nice Airport: Near Miss Shocks Passengers
An EasyJet plane came within a hair’s breadth of disaster at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport. A Tunisian Nouvelair Airbus mistakenly lined up on the wrong runway—one of two parallel strips. To avoid a catastrophic collision, the Nouvelair pilot slammed the throttle, speeding down the runway at 170mph. The two jets missed each other by a mere 10 feet, creating one of the closest calls in aviation history.
300 Passengers Face Terrifying Close Call
Both flights were carrying around 300 passengers who were left shaken by the drama. One passenger told Le Figaro the EasyJet captain was “in a visible state of shock” after the near miss.
“The plane was about to take off when we heard an enormous noise of engines right alongside,” the passenger said.
Airport authorities swiftly blamed the Tunisian crew, stating: “It seems that the Nouvelair pilot made an error.”
EasyJet Flight Scrapped After Brush With Disaster
The EasyJet crew aborted their flight to Nantes immediately after the incident. Quick thinking from the Tunisian pilot averted a disaster. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot confirmed the scare, saying a “catastrophic collision” was “narrowly avoided.”
Another Rough Year for EasyJet: More Close Calls
This isn’t EasyJet’s first safety scare this year. Earlier, a pilot was suspended after flying too close to a mountain near the coast. Another flight had to evacuate passengers after hitting a tow vehicle at Manchester Airport. Emergency services rushed to the scenes, but thankfully, no one was injured.
As airports tighten safety protocols, incidents like this show just how razor-thin the margin is when hundreds of lives hang in the balance.
