Ryanair responds to tail-strike incident criticised in report
Tuesday December 15 2009
A Ryanair flight to London Stansted from Dublin airport failed to deploy oxygen masks to nine seats and cabin crew were forced to bang on the flight deck door to alert pilots, according to a report.
The incident on September 11, 2008, happened after the tail of the Boeing 737-8AS hit the runway during takeoff.
While the tail-strike wasn’t “serious” the chain of events afterwards led to a “serious incident where many of the passengers were anxious and upset,” the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit said in a report posted on its website yesterday.
After the tail-strike it would have been more appropriate to “level off the aircraft at a safe altitude and identify fully the nature of the problem,” instead of continuing the aircraft’s ascent, the report said.
Ryanair “welcomes” the report, Stephen McNamara, spokesman for the airline, said in an e-mailed statement today. The report “confirms that Ryanair has already implemented specific guidelines for such incidents with its crew.”
- Colm Heatley
© Bloomberg
