Pilots worried by handling of Prestwick alert

THE Irish Air Lines Pilots’ Association (IALPA) has expressed serious concern about the handling of a bomb alert by the British authorities involving a Ryanair flight forced to land at Prestwick Airport on Wednesday.

The Boeing 737 aircraft was diverted to the airport near Glasgow as a result of a mid-air bomb scare which turned out to be a hoax warning left in a magazine on board the aircraft.

IALPA yesterday joined other aviation experts in expressing surprise at the decision to leave 172 passengers, including 71 schoolgirls from Carlow, and six crew on board the Boeing 737 for more than two hours before evacuating them.