Description

On 8 August 2011, the crew of an Airbus A319 (F-GRXC) being operated by Air France on a scheduled passenger flight from Paris CDG to Casablanca as AF 1896 carried out an approach to and landed on the wrong runway at destination in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC). The error was reported to ATC by the crew of an aircraft which had been cleared to cross the runway on which the Air France aircraft landed but had noticed the apparently abnormal position of the Air France aircraft in relation to the clearance it had received and decided not to do so.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Moroccan DGCA BEA. It was hindered by the failure of the Air France crew to follow prescribed reporting and other procedures after such a Serious Incident. The aircraft commander involved stated that as far as he was concerned “this incident was by no means serious, since it had not compromised safety, and that it did not justify the triggering of a serious incident procedure”. The relevant DFDR data was successfully recovered but the crew had continued as scheduled after the event and so the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was overwritten. No ASR was filed following the event and by the time the Investigation was able to interview the crew, they had stated that “given the date of the incident, they could not remember the precise details referred to in the interview” and “they agreed to review certain statements made….after consulting the transcripts of the radio communications”.