What happened
On August 8, 2011, an Air France Airbus A320, registration F-GRXC, was operating flight AFR1896 from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Casablanca Mohammed V Airport. During the arrival phase, the flight crew transitioned from an instrument approach to a visual approach after reporting they had the airport in sight.
While the approach controller instructed the crew to fly the final for runway 35L and contact the tower, the crew subsequently contacted Casablanca Tower. Although the tower explicitly instructed the crew to report on final for runway 35L, and the crew acknowledged they were authorized to land on 35L, the aircraft actually landed on runway 35R. The error was identified only after another aircraft, operating flight RAM560, informed the tower that an Air France aircraft had landed on the 35R runway.
The investigation
The investigation examined flight data from the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and radio communications. Investigators found that the aircraft was flying a high and fast approach, with the flight path deviating from the nominal trajectory. The DFDR showed the aircraft was approximately 4.6 dots to the right of the localizer at 1,000 feet AGL and remained significantly offset at touchdown.
Interviews with the crew revealed that the possibility of a visual approach had not been discussed during the initial arrival briefing. Furthermore, the investigation noted that the pilot flying (PF) was heavily focused on maintaining the stabilization criteria, while the pilot not flying (PNF) was struggling to keep up with the flight path. The investigation also found that the commander did not follow company procedures for a serious incident, specifically failing to pull the circuit breakers to preserve the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) data immediately after the aircraft stopped.