Royal Air Maroc: Air disaster averted in Doha

On February 4th, at 11:00 PM, a Royal Air Maroc (RAM) plane nearly struck the runway at Doha Airport.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, deployed for flight AT 216 from Casablanca-Mohamed V to Doha, Qatar, was at an altitude of 50 meters and the pilot was preparing to land on runway 34L. He was surprised to see a Qatar Airways plane that had just landed and was still on the runway due to an incorrect assessment by air traffic control.

The RAM pilot then executed a dramatic last-minute recovery maneuver before returning above the runway and finally landing safely.

According to Flight Aware data, controllers asked the RAM pilot to go around, a basic procedure for any pilot completely ingrained in navigation habits, often used in case of severe weather conditions (wind, storm, snowstorm…).