Catania, Italy – There is an investigation going on after an Air Arabia Maroc flight almost crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. This “serious incident” happened just after the plane left Sicily last month. The Airbus A320, which was flying without passengers, dropped to a dangerously low altitude, which set off an automatic cockpit warning that probably saved the day.
The terrible event happened on September 20, 2025, but details are only now coming to light after Italy’s national air safety agency, the Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza del Volo (ANSV), officially started looking into it. The plane, which only had two pilots and four cabin crew members on board, was able to recover and continue its journey to Jordan. However, the incident has caused a lot of concern in the aviation community, and people are asking what went wrong.
A Normal Takeoff Becomes Dangerous
It was supposed to be a normal ferry flight, moving an airplane without any passengers around. The Airbus A320 with the registration number CN-NML took off from Catania Airport at 9:57 PM UTC and flew to Amman, Jordan. The weather was nice, and the sky was clear. There was no sign of the drama that was about to happen in the night sky.
The plane took off from Runway 08 and climbed normally to about 350 feet. Then, things went very wrong. Instead of going up, the 14-year-old jet suddenly pitched down and fell toward the dark waters of the Mediterranean.
The plane was in a very dangerous position in just a few seconds. Reports say it dropped to as low as 200 to 230 feet above the sea surface, which is only a stone’s throw away in aviation terms, while going over 480 kilometers per hour (almost 300 mph).
The situation inside the cockpit was getting very bad. That’s when an important piece of technology stepped in. The Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) on the plane came to life, and its automated voice filled the cockpit with a clear, urgent command: “PULL UP. PULL UP.” The only thing this system is supposed to do is let pilots know that their plane is about to crash into the ground or, in this case, the water.
The pilots took immediate action after hearing the automated warning. They pulled the plane out of its dive and started climbing again. The flight finally went back to its planned route to Queen Alia International Airport and landed without any more problems. But the calm end of the flight didn’t match the heart-stopping moments that happened right after takeoff.
The Investigation Goes On
The ANSV has called the event a “serious incident,” which means that there is a high chance of an accident happening. Even though the flight happened a month ago, aviation authorities usually take their time with a preliminary review before starting a full investigation. Now the real work begins.
So, what do the people who are looking into this want? Their investigation will cover a lot of ground and look into all possible causes. This includes:
- Technical Malfunction: Did one of the aircraft’s systems stop working? The “black box,” or flight data recorder, will be carefully examined by investigators. It contains hundreds of pieces of flight information, such as altitude, airspeed, control inputs, and engine performance.
- Human Factors: Did mistakes in the procedure or decisions made by the pilot have anything to do with it? The cockpit voice recorder will give us an important audio record of the moments before the accident, including conversations and background noise.
- Outside Conditions: Initial weather reports said everything was fine, but experts will look for any unusual events, like a microburst, that might have gone unnoticed.
Aviation experts, who were surprised by the event because the weather was clear, have come up with a few ideas. One idea is that the plane’s takeoff weight and balance may have been wrong. If the weight is not distributed correctly, it can have a big effect on how well an airplane works, especially during the important takeoff and initial climb phases. Another possibility, though less likely to cause such a dramatic dive without other signs, is a major bird strike that could have affected the flight controls or engine performance.
Putting Air Arabia in Context
Air Arabia Maroc, a subsidiary of the low-cost airline Air Arabia based in the United Arab Emirates, flew the plane. Air Arabia started in Sharjah in 2003 and has grown a lot since then. It now has a large fleet of Airbus A320 family planes.
It has had problems in the past, just like any other major airline, and these are being looked into to make the whole industry safer.
- An Air Arabia A320 in Sharjah took off from the wrong runway by mistake in September 2018. The crew knew they had made a mistake, but they decided to keep going with the takeoff. They went 30 meters past the end of the runway before taking off. The investigation showed that the crew didn’t do enough visual checks, and no one was hurt.
- The airline has had problems with hydraulic failures more recently. In May 2024, a flight that landed in Chittagong, Bangladesh, had a problem with its hydraulic system after landing. It got stuck on the runway for a short time, but all 191 passengers and crew got off safely.
- In July 2022, a flight from Sharjah to Kochi, India, also had a full emergency because of a hydraulic failure, but it was able to land safely.
Even though these events have nothing to do with the Catania incident, they are part of the larger operational history that safety experts look at. The fact that these emergencies, like the recent near-disaster in Italy, were handled well shows how strong both modern planes and their highly trained crews are.
The aviation community is now waiting for the ANSV’s results. The investigation’s results will be significant for the whole industry, not just Air Arabia. They will teach us important lessons to make sure that a flight that came so close to disaster stays an isolated, and thankfully non-fatal, event.
