A plane crash was averted for just 20 seconds at Berlin airport, where two aircraft full of passengers risked being involved in what would have been a tragic collision.
Two Airbuses were involved: one from Air France which departed from Paris and landed from the German city, one from EasyJet which was taking off for Milan Linate .
To avoid the tragedy, the French vehicle canceled the landing at the last moment, while the low cost one stopped its run-up.
The events took place in the afternoon of 12 October. The EasyJet plane at 14.39 and 52 seconds receives the green light to take off from the control tower, 20 seconds later it gives power to the engines but - after another six seconds - it immediately stops the maneuver because it turns out that on the same runway from behind it is arriving there. 'Airbus of Air France .
Time 20 seconds and the impact would have been inevitable, a risk that is noticed by the control tower that orders the French jet to "hang up", that is to regain altitude and take a turn before retrying the landing again later . At the same time, the control tower orders the Easyjet plane to exit the main asphalt strip and wait for a new ok for take-off.
According to Deutsche Flugsicherung (Dfs), the company that provides air navigation services in Germany, it is the fault of the Easyjet pilots who lost too much time to start the take-off maneuver when the okay arrived.
Reconstruction that the low cost company rejects: "We confirm that the flight had to interrupt the take-off operations following the indications provided by the air traffic control", a spokeswoman for the company explained to the Courier. " EasyJet acted in accordance with procedures and at no time was the safety of passengers or crew compromised."
(Unioneonline / L)
