Ryanair may face an investigation by the Irish Department of Transport after transport minister Martin Cullen requested a briefing on a series of safety incidents.
The most recent involved a Ryanair aircraft coming into land at Cork last June, an incident described as “serious” by the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit. Rather than abort an initial landing attempt and circle the airport to try again, the pilot banked tightly over houses to land quickly.
It was the fourth incident in two years, including one at Knock Airport last March following which the accident investigation unit concluded a crash had been “marginally avoided”. The Irish Airline Pilots Union has blamed pressure to meet tight turnaround times at airports.
Ryanair dismissed the union’s claim and blamed the pilots concerned. It released a memo it sent to pilots re-stating its procedure on aborting landings and pointed out the report on the incident at Cork did not criticise the airline.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary blamed “jet jockeys deciding ‘I’m better than Ryanair’s standard operating procedures’,” and said: “We don’t want anyone doing that.”
Travel Weekly’s sister magazine Flight International has called on the Irish Aviation Authority to investigate “the human factors of low-cost operations”.