Ryanair flight in emergency landing

A RYANAIR flight made an emergency landing at Dublin airport yesterday morning after part of the aircraft’s tail hit the runway.

The protective tailskid from the aircraft touched the runway as the 11.40am flight FR208 bound for London Stansted took off from Dublin airport.

Oxygen masks were deployed on the flight which returned to Dublin as “a precautionary measure”.

The aircraft landed safely and the 148 passengers disembarked normally, a spokeswoman said. Fire services were called to the scene “as would be the norm”, a Dublin Airport Authority spokeswoman said.

Passenger Brendan Duffy described “a loud bang” when the aircraft took off.

It was similar to “a noise when a plane lands when the landing gear hits the ground . . . but in the take-off”, Mr Duffy told RTÉ Radio One’s News at One.

“It was quite strange and you could feel your ears popping shortly after that,” he said.

When the aircraft was in the air for a few minutes, a steward “ran up and down the corridor and told everyone to pull down their oxygen masks”, Mr Duffy said. The masks came down after “two or three minutes of panic”.

He claimed that the masks in his row did not come down and that he had to move seats. “Luckily the flight wasn’t full or I don’t know what we would have done,” he said.

However, Ryanair said it had “verified that all of the oxygen masks had been deployed”.

Passengers were offered refreshments and places on the next two flights back to Stansted.

“There’s a lot of anxious people around who just want to get up in the air and home and just land safely,” Mr Duffy said as he waited to board his second flight at lunchtime yesterday.

However, yesterday was the anniversary of the September 11th attacks in the United States and this date did not bode well with all passengers.

“A few people I think have decided to get a boat just being the date that it is today,” Mr Duffy said.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit is looking into the incident, according to a Department of Transport spokesman. The Irish Aviation Authority also received a report of the incident from Ryanair yesterday.

A spokeswoman said that passengers were accommodated on the next flights to Stansted yesterday.

However, the Ryanair 12.55pm and 1.40pm flights from Stansted to Dublin did not leave until after 2pm.