‘Significant damage’ to jet wasn’t spotted until after take-off

A Ryanair jet suffered "significant damage" while parked at a Portuguese airport but it wasn’t detected until the crew experienced control problems during a later flight.

Formal investigation of the 2011 “Serious Incident” at Faro Airport was delegated by the Portuguese authorities to the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) as State of Registry.

In its Final Report published yesterday the AAIU outlined that in the early hours of October 24, Faro Airport was hit by the rare meteorological phenomenon known as a microburst associated with a supercell.