A Brit who was onboard when a Tunisian jet came within just 10feet of a horror crash with another plane has spoken of the fear and confusion from passengers.
The Nouvelair plane mistakenly tried to land at the wrong runway at Nice Cote d’Azur Airport on Sunday night, which has two running parallel to one another.
Already on the tarmac was an EasyJet flight to Nantes – which was lined up and awaiting clearance for take off.
It was then that the Tunisian airbus rapidly descended in its direction.
The Nouvelair pilots were suddenly forced to apply full power to miss the EasyJet aircraft – before circling to make another landing attempt.
It is thought to be one of the closest near misses between two passenger jets, with the EasyJet pilot telling passengers the planes were just three metres – or 10ft – apart.
Passenger James Johnson, 33, had been on holiday in Tunis before flying to Nice to spend two days with his friend.
The British man, who lives in New York, said he had never flown with Nouvelair before taking the short trip to southern France.
After the plane’s sudden change of direction shortly before landing, James said he was unaware that he had come ‘within metres’ of his death.
James Johnson had been on holiday in Tunis before he took the Nouvelair flight to Nice
James (pictured with his friend in Tunis) claimed that he and other passengers were unaware of the near miss, believing a storm had prevented them from landing
He only then found out about the near miss after reading a story in a local newspaper two days later.
The aircraft began its descent into Nice in the midst of a storm, which James described as having made some passengers feel ‘tense’ about the landing.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘Everything was fine and then this ominous feeling set in on the approach into Nice.
‘It was a blinder of a storm. After I got out of the airport there were thunderclaps setting car alarms off. It was so bad.
‘The wind was causing the plane to sway a bit, and it was quite bumpy on the descent which made it feel quite tense.
‘As we came down to the approach, the plane suddenly revved back up with ferocious power and trajectory.
‘There were women in tears. It wasn’t screaming or on the brink of chaos but there was a real sense of fear.’
James said at first he and other passengers believed the storm had prevented the plane from landing.
James said he only found out about the near miss when his friend was a local newspaper report
He claims they were not made aware of the near-collision that had just taken place.
James added: ‘People were pretty shaken at the time because we thought it was the conditions – you see it at Heathrow sometimes when a plane can’t land because of the wind.
‘And so people became worried because the pilot was obviously going to have to attempt it again.
‘As we pulled into the gate, there was applause from everyone, we thought the pilot had smashed it – to be able to land in the storm.
‘I was definitely quite shaken.’
The plane landed safely on its second attempt but James noticed that the pilots did not stand outside the cockpit after landing.
It wasn’t until today that James found out about why the plane did not land the first time, after his friend saw the story on the front page of a local newspaper.
He added: ‘This morning my friend went out for a run and saw on a regional newspaper that we had come within just metres from another plane. We had no sense we were three metres from death.
The Nouvelair plane mistakenly tried to land at the wrong runway at Nice Cote d’Azur Airport on Sunday night
‘I thought goodness me not only pretty scary it was a genuine near-death experience and it was entirely my plane to blame.
‘I felt a bit of a chill hearing that. I did immediately feel queasy this morning, my friend could not believe it, felt sick to the stomach.
‘My colleague thinks it is the second closest near miss in history.’
While James admitted he did not understand the announcements that were being broadcast in French, he claimed that passengers did not hear from the pilots for the remainder of the flight.
He said: ‘The announcements were all in French so I could not understand what they were saying but air hostesses were smiling. I don’t think they knew what happened. Not a peep from the pilots.’
After news broke of the near miss, French transport minister Philippe Tabarot ordered an immediate investigation by the air accident investigation branch.
The pilots of the Tunisian Nouvelair jet came under fire by airport management – who blamed them for the near miss.
Pilots of the EasyJet flight 4706 to Nantes were so shaken by the incident that they chose not to continue the flight.
The EasyJet pilots were so shaken by the near miss that they abandoned the flight
Érard, 29, a passenger on the EasyJet flight, told local newspaper Le Figaro that the captain was in a ‘visible state of shock’ when he left the flight deck.
He said the EasyJet captain had informed passengers that a crash had been avoided by three metres and that it was the fault of the other airliner.
He added: ‘The plane was about to take off when we heard an enormous noise of engines right alongside.’
Both planes were grounded as investigators took flight recordings. The BEA declared it a ‘serious incident’
The agency warned against any premature conclusions however, an official confirmed to French media that the aircraft had approached the wrong runway, as previously speculated.
James said he would be ‘avoiding’ Nouvelair in the future and said he had a ‘British Airways flight’ booked home to New York.
A spokesperson for EasyJet said: ‘The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and in line with procedures, we are fully cooperating with the safety investigation that has been launched in order to understand what happened.’
Nouvelair has been contacted for comment.
