Mid-air collision narrowly avoided over Antibes

All flights like this Easyjet are required to fly round the Antibes peninsular

News of the near-miss only came to the public’s attention at the weekend. The focus of the inquiry is on why the pilot of the Swiss-based Cessna did not know that it is forbidden for any aircraft to fly directly over Antibes to reduce the problem of noise pollution for the town’s residents.

The incident happened last Wednesday afternoon shortly after an Air France jet carrying 150 passengers took off to the south-west from Nice International airport bound for Paris. As required, the plane immediately headed out to sea to avoid flying over Cap d’Antibes, before making a 90 degree turn and flying inland to the west of the Antibes peninsular.

A few minutes later the private plane also took off from Nice but instead of following a similar route it headed straight for Antibes, putting it on a collision course with the Air France jet.

In the event, the air traffic control tower’s safety system and the flight TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system) on the Air France jet kicked in to prevent a mid-air crash, but both aircraft had to perform an emergency avoidance manoeuvre. CL