Ryanair flight leaves Shannon for London seven hours late

More than 150 London-bound Ryanair passengers were left grounded for seven hours yesterday after what was described as a “minor technical issue”.

Flight FR102 from Shannon to London Stansted was due to depart at 6.15am but it was delayed because of a cracked cockpit window. The passengers had already boarded their flight when some received a text message from Ryanair advising that their departure would be delayed.

This text message arrived before any announcement was made by the flight crew and advised passengers that their new departure time would be 10.30am. Passengers were taken back to the terminal.

A replacement window was flown in from Stansted, arriving at Shannon at 9.36am.

Some passengers asked if they could transfer to a later Gatwick flight but they were told their aircraft would be ready and in the air before the Gatwick service departed. This however was not the case.

Passenger Jay Briganti said: “We were already boarded and the plane was fully loaded. Everyone was ready to go, but they hadn’t closed the door. Then at 6.26am I got a text message about the delay before anything had even been announced on board.”

“The captain came on about a minute later saying there was a fault and they would need to wait two hours for engineers to update them on situation and that we would have to get off the plane,” Mr Briganti added.

At about 9am “they handed out vouchers for €5 which wouldn’t even cover the cost of a soup and the only place they could be used was in the airport restaurant.”

Passengers were then told to return to the gate to prepare for boarding for a second time. From the departure gate, they could see where the faulty window was still not replaced.

Missing window
"When I got down the stairs, it was clear the window was still missing so I asked the Servisair lady why we were down there. They had no answers and with the hall full again, we got another text message from Ryanair at 10.12am saying flight was estimated to depart at midday," Mr Briganti said.

The flight finally took off at 1.15pm, seven hours late.

“A Ryanair flight from Shannon to London Stansted was delayed ahead of take-off due to a minor technical issue,” an airline spokesman said. “Passengers were provided with refreshment vouchers, while a Ryanair engineer examined the aircraft and cleared it to return to service. Ryanair sincerely apologised to all passengers affected by this delay.”