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Special Case - - Gliders and Airliners

Notes:

2/99, The Air France Airbus had flown a shortcut into final for Montpellier > because of Mistral and was running VFR. At about 2500m MSL they saw a Grob Twin and started to roll (don't remember anymore to the right or to the left) and touched the Grob's elevator with the leading edge of the Airbus wing, taking off about 1/3 of the elevator. Both aircraft landed safely, one flight attendant showed some bruises. The Grob was actually not infringing any airspace limitations. It was a deliberate choice of the crew in the Airbus to do the descent through uncontrolled airspace where they were informed that giders were flying. The reaction of the authorities after this midair was to change this uncontrolled airspace into class D airspace.