An Easyjet plane carrying nearly 200 people almost ran out of runway after taking off from the wrong place.
The flight, which departed London Luton Airport for Malaga on June 13, 2025, was just 65ft off the ground at the end of the runway as the pilot took off from an intersection with a ‘higher-than-normal’ weight at almost 69,000kg.
The pilot had taken off at 5.32am from the part of the runway he normally used – an intersection – but the plane was heavier than usual that morning.
He should have used the full runway and had planned to do so, according to an investigation.
A report by the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has found that the terrifying incident likely occurred due to the crew’s ‘habitual behaviour and confirmation bias’.
It states: ‘The crew calculated takeoff performance to depart using the full-length of the runway, but the aircraft departed from a runway intersection, ie with a shorter take off run.
‘The crew did not notice this during the takeoff roll but it was identified later the same day by the operator’s Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) system.
‘Safety action was taken by the operator to amend their operating procedures to try to trap this takeoff performance error.’
The Easyjet flight was just 65ft off the ground at the end of the runway as the pilot took off from an intersection with a ‘higher-than-normal’ weight at almost 69,000kg (File image)
The incident occurred as the aircraft departed Luton airport at 5.32am on June 13, 2025
According to the report, the co-pilot had planned to take off from Intersection Alpha on Runway 25.
However, he noted that they did not have the takeoff performance, given the aircraft’s weight and the environmental conditions at the time.
This was checked and confirmed by the captain, a 49-year-old with 13,500 hours of flying experience, of which 9,000 were on the same type of aircraft they had flown that day, the A320. On board were 180 passengers and six crew.
The crew agreed to do a calculation using the full-length of Runway 25, which permitted a take off.
The report states: ‘They then briefed for the departure including potential threats to be considered.
‘While the aircraft’s higher-than-normal weight was considered, should an immediate return to LTN (Luton airport) be required, the takeoff from the full-length, rather than from an intersection, was not.’
The flight was given clearance to line-up on Runway 25, at Intersection Alpha, behind a landing aircraft, followed by clearance to take off. The aircraft departed without event.
It returned to Luton airport later the same day and the crew went off-duty. The captain was informed that the incident had automatically triggered a post-flight event on Easyjet’s Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) system.
‘The FDM trigger was the aircraft’s low height at the far end of Runway 25 and ‘questionable runway length remaining’ at the point of lift off.
‘It was at this point that the commander realised they had made a mistake with their takeoff point compared to the performance they had calculated.
‘Given the aircraft flew back to LTN before this serious incident was identified, the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) was not available as it had been overwritten.’
According to crew comments submitted to AAIB, neither pilot believed ‘fatigue’ was a factor in the incident with both describing the pre-flight preparations as routine.
They said 90 per cent of the time the aircraft has the performance to takeoff from the intersection at LTN.
The investigation states: ‘The aircraft was ready to depart slightly ahead of schedule and there were no external distractions that may have led to the crew rushing or forgetting their requirement to depart from the full-length of Runway 25.
‘While the crew briefed potential threats, including the aircraft’s higher-than-normal weight, an opportunity was missed to highlight the requirement to takeoff from the lesser used full-length, as opposed to the more common intersection.
‘Once the push back was completed the commander requested clearance to taxi. ATC responded with, ‘are you [Intersection] alpha able?’ to which the commander incorrectly replied ‘affirm’.
‘As the commander had departed from an intersection many times recently, this was likely to have been a habitual response, and it was not noticed by the co-pilot.
‘Despite another aircraft stating that they were ‘requiring full-length’, just before the aircraft was transferred to the Tower frequency, this did not cause the crew to realise that they too required the full-length, as they may have been busy completing other tasks before departure.
‘Added to the fact that they observed three preceding aircraft line-up and depart from the Intersection Alpha it is likely their mental model was reinforced by confirmation bias.’
It concluded: ‘The aircraft took off using a shorter TORA (take off run available) than had been used to calculate aircraft takeoff performance.
‘While there were a few opportunities to trap this error, they were missed, probably by a combination of the crews’ habitual behaviour and confirmation bias.
‘Takeoff performance serious incidents continue to occur, and this one demonstrated that crews must be resilient to confirmation bias and the normalising of regular types of departure.’
Following the incident, Easyjet has ‘reviewed and amended their take off performance procedures with the aim of making them more resilient to the type of error highlighted in this event’.
A spokesperson for the airline told the Daily Mail: ‘We are aware of the report and fully assisted the AAIB with its investigation.
‘We will always take action to ensure we maintain the highest standards of safety.
‘Easyjet’s pilots are trained to the highest industry standards and the safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is Easyjet’s highest priority.’
