Ryanair incidents prompt call for low-cost safety audit

A leading aviation magazine has called for a safety audit of low-cost airlines following two recent incidents involving Ryanair planes.

An editorial in the latest edition of Flight International says the human stresses involved in operating aircraft under the low-cost model have never been properly investigated.

The magazine's editor David Learmont said today that he was not making any allegations against low-cost airlines, but felt the lack of any proper safety audit was a cause for concern.

"This is a business model which has never been investigated in its own right," he said.