Cross-check of runway length was ‘invalidated’ by crew making same error.

“At lift-off the [captain] noted that the departure end of the runway was closer than he would have expected but did not perceive any other performance issues,” says by an inquiry.

It states reduced thrust had been used for the take-off roll and that, as the situation emerged, the captain did not feel there was a need to increase power.

• Human Factor (Human-Equipment interface)
  • UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) found that the crew had inadvertently selected intersection Q3, virtually the whole runway length, for the calculation. Rightly, data entry on the electronic flightbag application was “clumsy and often requires re-­entering”, according to pilot ­testimony to the inquiry. For Nice, it says, the B3 and Q3 intersections are easy to mis-select as they are adjacent.
• Failure in Cross-Check

• EasyJet has been working on updating performance software, the inquiry says, to put greater emphasis on graphic rather than text representation of runway data.
• Airbus had also been developing enhanced take-off monitoring for A320s and A330s, using a ­version of take-off surveillance introduced on the A350 the ­previous year.