An easyJet flight preparing to depart Nice Côte d'Azur Airport in France on the evening of Sept. 21 was canceled after another passenger jet descended dangerously close to it, prompting officials to investigate the serious incident.

The near miss occurred when easyJet flight 4706 was positioned on the runway, ready to depart for its journey to Nantes Atlantique Airport in western France, the United Kingdom-based carrier told USA TODAY. The Airbus A320-214 was awaiting clearance for takeoff from air traffic control when another Airbus A320-214 from Tunisian-based airline Nouvelair approached for landing right above it.

The Nouvelair flight, which came from Tunis, Tunisia, was preparing to arrive in Nice for its scheduled time of 10:10 p.m., according to FlightAware. As reported by local media outlet Nice-Matin, the Nouvelair flight passed over within 10 feet of the easyJet plane, causing passengers to feel "strong vibrations."

Flightradar24 data reported the Nouvelair flight's altitude between 25 and 50 feet at the time. According to the flight-tracking platform, all arriving flights were assigned to Runway 04L that night, but the Nouvelair flight made its first approach at Runway 04R, which was only being used for departing flights.

Air traffic control directed the Nouvelair aircraft to perform a go-around, and it landed safely at 11:49 p.m., according to FlightAware data. Nouvelair did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

According to its website, the easyJet flight was delayed until the next day "due to a non-easyJet aircraft incident." In a statement to USA TODAY, easyJet said: "The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and in line with procedures, we are fully cooperating with the safety investigation that has been launched in order to understand what happened."

The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety launched a safety investigation into the incident, deploying a team of four investigators to the airport, the agency said in a tweet on Sept. 22.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Passenger jet descends within 10 feet of EasyJet plane in France

Reporting by Kathleen Wong, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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