UA57 - Incident: United B78X at Paris on Jul 20th 2020

A United Boeing 787-10, registration N16009 performing flight UA-57 from Newark,NJ (USA) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (France), was on final approach to Paris' runway 09L when tower cleared the aircraft to land on runway 09R. The crew read back the clearance and performed a swing over to runway 09R.

An Easyjet Europe Airbus A320-200, registration OE-IJF performing flight U2-3955 from Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) to Malaga,SP (Spain), had been cleared to line up runway 09R and wait, recognized the developing situation and reported the conflict on radio.

The B78X initiated a go around from about 260 feet AGL (500 feet transponder altitude corrected to QNH 1018 and 367 feet ground elevation) resolving the conflict.

The United B78X landed safely about 20 minutes later, the Easyjet A320 departed about 5 minutes later.

The French BEA rated the occurrence a serious incident (landing clearance on an occupied runway) and opened an investigation.

On Jul 19th 2021 the BEA released their final report in French (the English version was released on Sep 1st 2021, the following still based on the AVH translation of the French original) concluding the probable cause of the serious incident was:

- A mental slip by the controller clearing the aircraft to land on an occupied runway and not verifying the readback by the crew.

- The traffic management at that moment essentially on runway 09R (one landing, two departures, two runway crossings)

- The controller's concern with his change of position from Local NorthWest to Local NorthEast

- The controller's lack of practise related to the decrease in traffic during Covid 19 crisis period

- The use of the non-standard expression "Understand" by the flight crew rather than "confirm" which would have attracted more attention by the controller

On the day of the occurrence the Local Northeast position was not operational. From the fallback position Local Northwest the controller could not see the thresholds runways 09 which may have contributed to the controller not recognizing the swing over and the resulting conflict with the A320, which had been cleared to line up runway 09R for departure. The vigilance of both flight crews, in particular by the crew of the A320 observing the swing over while they were turning into position, but also the 787 crew observing the A320 lined up on their runway, contributed to avoiding a collision on the runway. At the same time the controller acquired visual contact and instructed a go around.

The BEA briefly summarized that the screen of the Local Northwest Control position could not be turned on, hence the controller used the Local Northeast position from where he could not see the thresholds of runways 09. A few minutes before the event, two planes had landed on runway 09L and were maintaining their position on the ramp before crossing runway 09R due to the landing of Air France's Boeing 787 on runway 09R. Two planes were at holding point D5, including the Airbus A320 from EasyJet, ready for departure on runway 09R.

On first contact with the crew of the United Airlines Boeing 787 on an ILS approach on runway 09L, the controller in the LOC position made a slip and cleared the crew to land on runway 09R instead of runway 09L . The crew, nevertheless wishing to dispel the doubt on this authorization which implied for them the realization of a bayonet, read back the landing clearance by adding in particular the words "Understand" and "Sidestep for 9 right" while awaiting '' a possible correction of the clearance by the controller. The controller did not check the crew's readings. The crew continued the final approach with a sight bayonet, in manual piloting, towards runway 09R.

The controller cleared the crew of the Airbus A320 to line up on runway 09R. The crew checked that the final approach axis for runway 09R was clear and saw the Boeing 787 which they estimated on final on runway 09L. He started rolling for the line-up. Before turning to line up with the runway centreline, the crew checked the final 09R centreline one last time and saw the Boeing 787 performing a swing over for runway 09R. This was at a height of 300 ft and 1300 m (0.7 NM) from the threshold. He questioned the controller about the presence of the Boeing 787 on final and faced with the imminence of a potential collision, the crew of the Airbus A320 asked the aircraft on final to go around. The crew of the Boeing 787 having visualized the Airbus A320 on the runway aborted its approach. At the same time, the controller confirmed the go-around instruction and the RIMCAS alarms were triggered. The Boeing 787 flew over the Airbus A320 at a height of approximately 300 ft.

Related Flight: UA57, Twitter: #UA57, United Airlines News