A GERMAN pensioner has been taken to hospital after a Ryanair aircraft allegedly flew so low that it knocked tiles off her roof.
Now Ilse Matschkus (82) and her neighbours in Groß Grönau, near Lübeck airport, are suing the airline for damages.
Ms Matschkus was in her garden last Thursday when Ryanair aircraft FR3291 from Milan-Bergamo passed overhead and, according to her, dislodged tiles from the roof which almost hit her.
Ryanair denies the aircraft buzzed Ms Matschkus’s house. Airport authorities say the aircraft did not deviate from its regular landing path at least 300 metres above nearby houses.
Ms Matschkus collapsed after the incident and is in hospital while eyewitnesses have contradicted the airport operator.
“Normally the aircraft aren’t so low and so loud,” said one neighbour, who was walking her dog at the time, to the Lübecker Nachrichten newspaper. “I almost pulled my head in.”
A file has been passed to the state prosecutor in nearby Lübeck.
“The house was damaged, that is without question,” said Jürgen Schulze, spokesman for the state prosecutor.
“Whether the plane caused it is another question entirely,” he added. “We will request the necessary flight data from the airport and the investigation could take four to six weeks.”
The case is the latest round in a long-running feud between Groß Grönau residents and the operators of Lübeck airport which has expanded rapidly in recent years due to its proximity to Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest city.
“We are convinced the plane left its usual path and flew too low,” said Gerhard Haase of the residents group that filed the charges. “It’s the fourth time something like this has happened.”
Ryanair and its pilot face charges of wilful damage to property, negligent bodily harm and endangerment of the airways.
A spokeswoman for Ryanair said the airline took the complaint seriously but it had found nothing of note after studying the landing data.
“It was a normal landing at normal height and speed,” said Henrike Schmidt of Ryanair. “There were no mistakes, so for us the case is closed.”