A plane from Middle East Airlines. (Credit: AFP.)
Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA) has firmly denied reports circulating in local media and on social networks of a near-collision involving one of its planes at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (Roissy).
One media outlet claimed on its X account that, "The MEA pilot narrowly avoided a collision this afternoon with another plane while preparing to take off for Beirut. He skillfully returned to his position at the airport as ambulances rushed to the runway," with the news quickly spreading across social platforms.
Speaking to L’Orient Today, a spokesperson for MEA unequivocally refuted these claims: "All of this is completely false. There was no incident involving MEA." "The national carrier’s plane was taxiing slowly on the CDG airport tarmac to position itself for takeoff. The control tower then contacted the pilot to inform them that their takeoff was delayed due to another plane making an emergency landing. Furthermore, the two planes were supposed to use different runways," the spokesperson added.
In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, MEA's public relations department detailed the incident. “While the aircraft was taxiing on runway 08L North before takeoff, the captain of flight ME212, departing from CDG to Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, received a message from the control tower instructing him to halt the process due to the presence of another aircraft scheduled to land on runway 08R Right,” the statement said.
According to MEA, “this is a standard procedure used at airports worldwide.” The airline clarified that there was “no risk of collision with the other aircraft” and “no danger whatsoever to the safety of passengers or crew.” It concluded that air traffic operations at Roissy Airport continued normally.