An air tragedy almost occurred in April 2025 at Luton Airport, London. As the Italian newspaper reveals Corriere della Sera, the accident was avoided for about two seconds and concerned a Boeing 737 aircraft Max performing flight 5411 London-Athens for the low cost company Wizz Air.
Response – Italy
As the Italian newspaper broadcasts, the aircraft «avoided by 162 metres — That's for a little more than two seconds. — a plane crash, as it took off almost at the end of the runway, because the pilots introduced incorrect flight parameters into the aircraft's computer». As Corriere della Sera notes «another five, six seconds and the aircraft could have collided on the railway line and on a highway located after the end of the runway».
The incident became known «only on 9 July from an Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), British Aviation Safety Research Agency» and note that «The incident involves an Ascend Airways aircraft, a British charter company that is currently no longer active and which provides aircraft and crews to other airlines during peak seasons».
That flight carried that day «162 passengers, two pilots and four flight attendants» And the governor had «10,000 flight hours, of which 3,000 on this aircraft model».
As it turns out, the governor «had originally prepared the flight for takeoff from the entire runway length for 25 seconds» However «during taxiing, the control tower enabled the pilots to shorten the route using an intersection instead of crossing the entire runway length». Thus, according to British researchers «the commander and co-pilot accepted the route, but without correctly verifying that take-off speeds (the so-called «V speeds») calculated for take-off as soon as possible had indeed been informed to Flight Management Computer, the aircraft's flying computer».
From the investigation, it appears that critical speed «did not appear to have been properly updated on the flight computer after the take-off point was changed» with the result that there is «an insufficient power setting for the actual distance available» resulting in «available track length from intersection A to be 1,771 metres — against 2,116 meters of the entire runway — the aircraft needed much more space than expected before it could take off and took off with just 162 metres of paved runway remaining». Therefore, Boeing 737 Max «It flew above the point of the runway termination at a distance of less than four metres, far below the minimum safety limit of 10.67 metres provided for in international regulations to ensure sufficient distance from obstacles. Researchers also examined the videos from Luton Airport surveillance cameras for a visual comparison between the take-off of Wizz Air flight and the take-offs under «normal conditions» and it was found that the aircraft was flying so low it was just visible over the airport buildings.
Corriere della Sera, stressing that the flight arrived normally in Athens, broadcasts that a spokesman for Wizz Air said that «Security is our absolute priority and we take very seriously the conclusions of the AAIB investigation.», which «described this incident as an individual flight crew procedural error and found no technical deficiency or deficiency in Wizz Air's safety management system».
Wizz Air spokesman also stressed that «throughout the duration of the cooperation, air carriers shall be subject to continuous supervision, including regular performance monitoring, security controls and inspections, in order to ensure compliance with both regulatory requirements and Wizz Air operational standards».
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