An easyJet flight operated on July 30th has come under investigation by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) on August 10th. The investigation comes after the flight initiated its take-off from the wrong intersection, with the agencies rating the occurrence a serious incident.

Which easyJet flight?

The easyJet flight was U2 8414, a thrice-weekly scheduled commercial flight that ferries passengers from Toulouse Blagnac Airport in France to London Gatwick Airport in the UK. easyJet typically varies aircraft deployments between the Airbus A319s, A320s, and A321s. On July 30th, a 12-year-old Airbus A320-200 registered G-EJCI was operating the flight.

Scheduled to depart from Toulouse Airport at around 17:15, the flight was significantly delayed and only took off at around 19:01. According to FlightRadar24.com, the Airbus narrowbody lined up on Toulouse Airport's runway 32R via taxiway N4. It commenced take-off from there before landing uneventfully at London Gatwick at 19:44.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

What went wrong?

Despite a routinely performed flight, the airline has come under scrutiny following a safety report that stated the aircraft took off from the wrong intersection. This means the easyJet flight should not have commenced take-off on runway 32R via taxiway N4. This approach meant the aircraft had 1,250 meters less runway than the airport's safety requirements dictate.

The French BEA opened an investigation on August 10th under file number BEA2023-0340. According to the case summary, the opening of the study was based on the notification and preliminary data fed in from the UK's AAIB - which had opened an inquiry first.

While it was not revealed what the correct intersection should have been, the likelihood was probably either taxiway intersection N2 or N1. Although the mistake did not cause any damage or injury, the BEA and the AAIB classified it as a serious incident.

What will happen next?

While the investigations continue, the BEA emphasizes that the primary objective of the inquiry was to improve aviation safety and has no intentions of pointing fingers. That means the likely outcomes will be reviews and recommendations on what could have been done to avoid or reduce the chances of future occurrences.

On the other hand, easyJet has reaffirmed that it takes the incident seriously, with the low-cost carrier highlighting it was fully cooperating with the investigations. As to what may happen to the pilots - other than the fact that they were likely taken off duty during the course of this investigation, remains uncertain since this incident resulted primarily from human errors.

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Source: AeroTime