Pilot drama as co-pilot forced to land plane

A CO-PILOT on his first official flight with Ryanair was forced to make an emergency landing after it appeared the captain had a cardiac arrest and was “clinically dead.”

An Air Accident Investigation Unit report just published reveals the captain was seen making some animated phone calls about his terms and conditions at the no-frills airline shortly before the incident.

The report highlights how passengers on board the Ryanair scheduled service were unknowingly at the centre of a major emergency shortly after the plane took off from Charleroi Airport in Belgium two years ago. The incident happened on a flight to London Stansted on September 13, 2002, with 143 passengers and crew on board.

The report reveals that eyewitnesses had seen the captain making several animated phone calls in the airport shortly before getting on the plane. It emerged the subject of the calls were his annoyance and disappointment about his contract with Ryanair.

Shortly after the Boeing 737 took off on the afternoon flight from Charleroi, the first officer noted that the captain had fallen unconscious. Flight crew reported that his head had fallen to one side and that he looked “completely white”.

An emergency was declared when there was no visible change in his condition, despite being fitted with an oxygen mask.

The aircraft turned around immediately and landed safely back at Charleroi.

On landing, a husband and wife doctor team on board the plane came forward to the cockpit and initially believed that the captain was dead.

The male doctor attempted to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while his wife carried out cardiac massage on the pilot. He eventually responded to treatment after 30 minutes after a paramedical team arrived with a defibrillator.

“It is a pity that we could not have intervened a little sooner, but I fully understand that the first officer had a tremendous responsibility, particularly since he had to carry out the return manoeuvres beside a clinically dead pilot,” said the male doctor.

The 57-year-old pilot, who was on medication for high blood pressure, was removed to hospital in a critical condition. It is understood that he has remained seriously ill in a nursing home near his residence in Ireland since the incident almost two years ago.

In a statement, Ryanair said it carried out a full investigation in co-operation with the AAIU and had already implemented its recommendation to improve co-ordination between departments to ensure rostered personnel were properly trained and qualified for their specific duties.