On 15 September 2006, about 85 minutes into the flight,
EasyJet Flight 6074 experienced a major electrical failure in its systems near
Nantes, France, while cruising at 32,000 feet (FL320). Multiple systems became inoperative, including the aircraft's radios,
autopilot,
ECAM, the captain's
electronic flight instrument display, and
TCAS. As a consequence of these failures, the A319 nearly collided with
American Airlines Flight AAL63, a
Boeing 777-223ER. The transponder was also knocked out, disabling the
air traffic controller's (ATC) ability to track the aircraft. Ten minutes before a shift change, the ATC noticed that Flight 6074 had disappeared from radar. The ATC quickly asked the pilots of a nearby aircraft, American Airlines Flight 63, to descend to 31,000 feet (FL310) to avoid a potential collision with the EasyJet aircraft and if they could see EasyJet Flight 6074 in their TCAS, but AAL63 replied negative. After the ATC shift change, the new controller again commanded Flight 63 to descend to 31,000 feet. At 11:01:17
local time, Flight 63 then began their descent. A few moments later, Flight 63 reported spotting an "EasyJet 737" flying overhead, undetected by the TCAS. Moments later, the pilots of EasyJet Flight 6074 managed to reconfigure their transponder and then a minute later, their
squawk code changed to the number
7700, or the General Emergency code number. Before landing, several attempts were made to contact ATC using mobile phones without success. The crew was unable to reconfigure the majority of the aircraft's electrical systems and continued on to land uneventfully at
Bristol Airport without any further communication to
air traffic control or remedy to the affected systems. == Investigation ==