Air Traffic Controller Nearly Causes Plane Crash

In Paris, two planes came close to a collision after a mistake by an air traffic controller.

According to a report on CNN, a United Airlines Boeing 787 arriving from Newark, New Jersey, and an EasyJet Airbus A320 preparing to take off en route to Malaga, Spain, nearly ran into one another on the same runway.

Planes were taking off on runway 09R at Charles de Gaulle and landing on 09L. However, a controller told the United Airlines plane to land on 09R. The crew of the United flight confirmed the change and was ready to land, but the EasyJet crew asked why the United plane was coming in to land. At 300 feet, the EasyJet crew and air traffic control told the United flight to ascend once again.

An investigation found that the controller did not have a direct line of sight to the 09 runways because equipment appeared to be broken. It was also determined that the United crew should have used the term “confirm” rather than “understand,” which is non-standard, when communicating with air traffic control about the change.