We constantly hear about close calls in aviation. I think it’s easy to become desensitized to these, and wonder which are actually dangerous, and which are just a bit too close for comfort.
Along those lines, yesterday we saw what’s easily one of the closest calls we’ve seen in a very long time, as reported by The Aviation Herald. Data suggests that TWO PLANES CAME WITHIN 10 FEET OF ONE ANOTHER ON THE RUNWAY!!!
Catastrophe narrowly avoided at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport
This incident happened very late at night (around 11:50PM local time) on Sunday, September 21, 2025, at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE), in the south of France. It involves two aircraft:
- A Nouvelair Airbus A320 with the registration code TS-INP was performing flight BJ586 from Tunis (TUN)
- An EasyJet Airbus A320 with the registration code OE-IJZ was performing flight U24706 to Nantes (NTE)
The Nouvelair A320 had been cleared to land on runway 4L, while the EasyJet Airbus A320 had been cleared to line up and wait on runway 4R, and was just taxiing into position. Just to clarify, those two runways are parallel to one another (at a heading of roughly 40 degrees), with 4L being to the left, and 4R being to the right.
All of that sounds fine, except for one little issue. The Nouvelair pilots (accidentally?) lined up their plane with runway 4R instead of runway 4L, with the former runway being occupied by the EasyJet plane.
According to ADS-B data, the Nouvelair A320 crossed the runway threshold at 50 feet above ground level, and only initiated a go around six seconds later. Just to be clear, an A320 has a tail height of over 41 feet, so the planes literally missed one another by a matter of feet. This isn’t some “oh it was sort of a close call” situation. Instead, this was a split second from being one of the worst aviation disasters that we’ve seen in a very long time.
The EasyJet plane subsequently exited the runway and returned to the apron, and the flight was ultimately canceled. Meanwhile the Nouvelair plane performed a go around, and then landed without incident, roughly 12 minutes later.
EasyJet passengers report hearing a loud noise and strong vibrations in the plane, and the EasyJet captain also reportedly informed passengers that the other A320 had overflown them by three meters.
Talk about a narrowly avoided disaster!
There were likely around 10 feet of separation between the two planes on the runway, and it can’t be overstated what a close call this was.
Presumably the investigation here will center around why the Nouvelair pilots got their runway assignment wrong, since this is a pretty major screw-up. There are some situations where you can kind of understand how there could be confusion, like if there’s a taxiway on one side that could somehow be mistaken for a runway.
But they were cleared to land on the left runway, and they landed on the right runway, where there’s nothing (not even a taxiway) to the right. This seems like really sloppy piloting.
I assume that because it was dark outside, the Nouvelair pilots somehow didn’t see the EasyJet plane on the runway, and thought that the lights of the plane were actually runway lights, or something. During landing, pilots will often be looking a long way down the runway as they prepare to flare, so I can sort of see how they could miss the plane on the runway.
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a very close call on a runway at night, and it likely won’t be the last. But my goodness, this has to set a new record in terms of just how close of a call it was.
I’ve seen some people ask why the EasyJet flight would’ve been canceled after this incident. While nothing has officially been announced, it’s possible the plane needed to be inspected after such a close call. For that matter, I’d fully support the pilots just not feeling like flying anymore, and being too rattled by the closest call they’ve had in their career.
Bottom line
Two Airbus A320s had a very close call at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport. An EasyJet A320 was supposed to line up on one runway, while a Nouvelair A320 was supposed to land on another runway. However, a mixup with the Nouvelair pilots caused them to instead line up on the occupied runway, causing them to overly the other plane by a matter of meters.
This is a next-level close call, and I’m curious to see what an investigation reveals…
What do you make of this close call?
