A Ryanair pilot was demoted following a serious incident on a flight carrying 128 passengers from Stansted to Cork last year, it has emerged.
Poor communications between the pilot and co-pilot led to the incident, where the Boeing 737-800 aircraft flew too low over Bishopstown, resulting in calls from "alarmed" residents.
Ryanair statement
The Air Accident Investigation Unit of the Department of Transport (AAIU) today published its investigation into the incident on June 4th last year, with 134 people on board.
The flight over Bishopstown was reported to the Cork Airport Authority by "at least 16 upset residents, whose independent and consistent complaints, submitted by phone and in writing, referred to noise and how low the aircraft was being flown", the AAIU report says.
The captain was at the controls on the day, and the co-pilot, who was less experienced on the aircraft type than the captain, later recalled hearing the warning signals twice and said they were "silenced" by the captain.
According to the report, the co-pilot, who had a better view of the ground to his right, "repeatedly" advised the captain of height loss on the turn over Bishopstown, which "alarmed" many residents.
No safety recommendations are made in the report. It notes that the "experience gradient" between the two pilots in this case was "steep" but not unusual in day-to-day operations and "may have been a contributory factor in the [captain's] attitude to the co-pilot".
The co-pilot had tried to comply with Ryanair's training manual but his "inputs had little effect". The AAIU said this did not excuse the "aberrant deviation" from the airline's standard operating procedures in its approach and landing that day, however.
In a statement, Ryanair said it "co-operated fully with this AAIU investigation and agrees with its findings".
"Following a disciplinary hearing, the pilot in question was demoted for deviating from Ryanair's standard operating procedures."
Last month, the AAIU reported that a Ryanair flight with 138 passengers and six crew on board almost crashed near Knock when it "overshot" the runway and came way below the recommended flying level due to a series of errors.