Nice A320 Near-Miss Triggers BEA, Prosecutor Probe

On the night of Sept. 21–22 at Nice–Côte d’Azur Airport, a Nouvelair Airbus A320 arriving from Tunis nearly landed on the same runway an easyJet A320 was lined up to depart, forcing a go‑around and narrowly averting a collision. Flight‑tracking and ADS‑B data and passenger reports indicate the arriving jet passed within roughly 25–50 ft — passengers estimated about 10 ft (≈3 m) — of the EasyJet aircraft. Air traffic control directed the go‑around; the Nouvelair later landed safely about 90 minutes later on a parallel runway and the EasyJet Nantes departure was canceled, with crew and passengers shaken. French authorities including Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot, the BEA and the prosecutor’s office have opened urgent investigations, seized flight recordings and will review radar, ADS‑B and cockpit data to determine whether pilot error, an ATC clearance mistake or heavy rain contributed. Airport management has suggested the Nouvelair crew may have lined up on the wrong of Nice’s two closely spaced parallel runways, and the incident is being treated as a serious safety breach prompting scrutiny of parallel‑runway procedures at France’s third‑busiest airport.