A collision between two planes was narrowly avoided on Sunday evening at Nice Airport (Alpes-Maritimes), the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) told AFP.

On Sunday, shortly after 11.30pm, a Nouvelair aircraft was landing at Nice Airport when it nearly struck an EasyJet plane that was already on the runway, the BEA said, confirming a report by Var Matin.

The landing aircraft then aborted the maneuver. The BEA considers the event a "serious incident" because the aircraft was attempting to land on the wrong runway.

"Yesterday, a major incident occurred at Nice-Côte d’Azur Airport, where a collision between two aircraft operated by Nouvelair and EasyJet was narrowly avoided", wrote Philippe Tabarot, the outgoing transport minister, on X.

Both planes were Airbus A320s.

BEA investigators were deployed to the scene, the agency said, adding that it requested the aircraft be secured on Sunday evening so their black boxes could be retrieved and analysed. The investigators will also gather testimony from the crews and air traffic control to determine the circumstances of the incident.