Description

On 29 August 2019, an Airbus A319 (G-EZBI) being operated by Easyjet on a scheduled international passenger flight from Nice to Newcastle and departing Nice in day VMC became airborne with less runway ahead than the experienced Captain in command was expecting and routine flight data analysis subsequently found that the wrong performance data had been independently calculated by both pilots.

Investigation

A Serious Incident Investigation was carried out by the UK AAIB in order to seek to establish how the errors made had gone undetected and the actual risk which had resulted. It was noted that the 62 year-old Captain had a total of 19,991 hours flying experience which included 7,235 hours on type. The flying experience of the First Officer was not recorded.

It was established that during pre flight preparations, the flight crew had decided to calculate takeoff performance for departure runway 04R from B3, the most limiting intersection they were likely to be able to use (see the illustration below). The subsequent cross check of their independent performance calculations disclosed a 1 knot discrepancy in calculated takeoff speeds which was considered acceptable and the most conservative figures were input to the FMC.