Website writer apologises to Ryanair

Ryanair has secured another apology from a person who made an anonymous posting on a website about the airline.

A man called Peter Walsh posted the apology on the Pprune.org website and said he had made a payment to charity that recognised the seriousness of the false claims he had made against the airline under the pseudonym ASFKAP.

Earlier this year Ryanair secured an order from the High Court compelling Eircom to disclose information to the airline that would assist it in identifying ASFKAP who, it said, had made highly defamatory comments about it.

The court was told that Ryanair had begun proceedings in California, where the website is registered, and had engaged an expert who had discovered the person using the name ASFKAP had IP addresses associated with Eircom.

Proceedings
Ryanair then identified Mr Walsh and instigated proceedings in the High Court. Mr Walsh is understood to live in Ireland but is not thought to be a Ryanair pilot. He was represented in the High Court proceedings by Rennick solicitors, of Dunboyne, Co Meath. A request for a comment from Mr Walsh, submitted through the solicitor's firm, met with no response yesterday.

A spokesman for Ryanair said it was satisfied the matter had now been resolved and that it would not allow anyone to impugn its "unblemished 29-year safety record, which has been confirmed by the Irish Aviation Authority as being 'on a par with the safest airlines in Europe'". A number of cases against other parties are pending in the High Court.

The court was told earlier this year that ASFKAP made a posting on Pprune, (the so-called rumour network for professional pilots) saying: “Can we not have a separate forum for Ryanair narrow escapes, near misses, airworthiness incidents and bullying and harassment issues?”

In his apology Mr Walsh said he had made a number of claims about Ryanair and the safety of its flights and operations which he now accepted were false. “I recognise and accept that I had no basis in fact for making such comments and I unreservedly revoke these false statements,” he said.