Ryanair pilots’ heavy fog landings ‘genuine errors’

AN official investigation is set to clear Ryanair pilots of any wrongdoing over an incident in which several aircraft operated by the Irish airline landed at Stansted Airport in heavy fog in breach of safety limits last year.

The vast majority of flights bound for Stansted on the evening of April 24, 2006 diverted to other airports in the London area, after poor visibility warnings from air traffic controllers.

However, several Ryanair aircraft chose to ignore warnings that fog surrounding Stansted meant visibility at the airport was below the minimum recommendations for a safe landing.

The problem was compounded by the fact that there was restricted lighting on the landing strip due to maintenance work. Visibility was often less than 300 metres for several hours, compared to the minimum recommended visibility limit of 550 metres for a night time landing.

It is understood that a total of 34 aircraft belonging to various airlines, including six Ryanair flights, chose to divert when warned about fog at Stansted.

However, eleven other Ryanair aircraft continued with their scheduled landing at Stansted, despite the poor weather conditions. Aviation sources at the time expressed concern that the decision was based on economic rather than safety reasons.

However, an IAA report into the controversy at Stansted has concluded that the behaviour of the Ryanair pilots constituted a technical breach only of regulations governing landing in poor weather conditions.

“We are convinced that there was nothing malicious in the action of the pilots and that the decision to land at Stansted was a genuine error,” said Kevin Humphreys, the IAA’s director of safety regulation yesterday.

Ryanair had also informed investigators that Stansted had remained open and fully operational at all times on the night in question.

The IAA has jurisdiction to investigate all complaints relating to Ryanair operations, even when they occur abroad, as it is an Irish-registered airline.

The IAA was also satisfied that Ryanair amended its procedures to improve how special notices from airport authorities were communicated to its pilots.

Although it was criticised by the Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigation Unit for a delay in reporting a serious incident, in which one of its aircraft flew dangerously low on an approach to Knock Airport last year, Mr Humphreys said the IAA was happy with Ryanair’s reporting.

“Ryanair are the best airline for reporting incidents, especially given that they operate 600-800 flights per day. They have a good system for detecting incidents,” he said.

IAA investigations also seek to examine the background of any incident to see if there is any trend developing within the industry, he added.

Pilots’ unions have recently called for aviation authorities to see if the management culture of airlines, especially low-cost flyers, could have a potential impact on the safety of flights.