UK EasyJet flight with 157 passengers was 'seconds away' from crashing into lake
An EasyJet flight from the UK, carrying over 150 passengers, was reportedly close to crashing into Lake Geneva.
It was only thanks to the quick actions of Swiss air traffic controllers who alerted the pilots to their alarming descending altitude. The Airbus A320 Neo had taken off from Edinburgh, Scotland, and was heading to Geneva on November 5 last year - with 157 passengers on board.
However, during its approach, over Lake Geneva, the plane ended up not far from the surface of the water. Instead of its reportedly usual around 700 metres from the surface, the flight was just 230 metres up when the air traffic controllers intervened. The Mail reported that they told the pilots “check your altitude immediately!”.
Following that, the plane did a go-around before landing properly at the second time of asking. The outlet said that, had they continued on their trajectory, they could have crashed into the water within 30 seconds.
The Swiss Safety Investigation Services (SESE) said: "During the approach to runway 22, the aircraft descended significantly below the glide slope and the flight crew initiated a go-around,".
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The SESE touched on the incident in a very brief interim report published last month as the full investigation is ongoing. It is understood that the pilots were stood down from duty for a short period, in line with standard working procedures, and have since begun flying once more.
In a statement, EasyJet told the Mirror: "We are fully supporting the investigation in line with procedures. At no point was the safety of those onboard compromised. The safety and wellbeing of passengers and crew is always easyJet's highest priority."
Whilst it isn’t clear what happened, a pilot and former air traffic controller, interviewed by Le Parisien, alleged it could be an issue of human error.
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