Accident to the Boeing 737 registered EC-NLS operated by Swiftair on 24/09/2022 at Montpellier-Méditerranée

In the night of 23 to 24 September 2022, the crew of the Boeing 737-400 registered EC-NLS, operated by Swiftair, were carrying out a mail commercial air transport flight between Paris - Charles de Gaulle and Montpellier - Méditerranée. The captain, in the left seat, was the Pilot Monitoring (PM), and the co-pilot, in the right seat, was the Pilot Flying (PF). An aircraft maintenance mechanic was also on board this flight, sat in the cargo area.

After having prepared and carried out the briefing for an ILS approach to runway 30R, the crew were informed that the runway in use had been changed. They then prepared a VOR-DME approach to runway 12L. There was no briefing for the new approach.

A storm cell was approaching the airport from the south-west. During the approach, the crew’s awareness of the presence of this cell was low despite available information.

On short final, the captain and co-pilot agreed to change roles. The co-pilot, now the PM, did not carry out his monitoring tasks.

When flying over the threshold, the aeroplane encountered windshear characterised by a sudden reduction in the tailwind. The crew did not detect this phenomenon and did not perceive its impact on the flight parameters. In particular, they did not observe that the aeroplane had exceeded the touchdown zone without coming into contact with the ground.

The aeroplane touched down on the runway beyond the touchdown zone, at around 1,500 m from the threshold of runway 12L. It overran the runway and finished its run in Or lake.