Airline makes 3 emergency landings in a week

An Aer Lingus flight carrying more than 180 passengers had to make an emergency landing Dublin Airport shortly after take off yesterday — the third such incident in a week.

It is understood the crew had to shut down one of the jet’s two engines after reporting a problem shortly after take-off.

Fight EI-490 had departed for Faro in Portugal with 181 passengers and crew, when the pilots detected an issue with the Airbus A321’s number 2 engine.

It is understood the crew reported vibrations in the engine soon after departure.

The flight returned to Dublin Airport and was able to vacate the runway under its own power. Accompanied by fire and rescue vehicles, the jet continued to the terminal where engineers were waiting to investigate the matter.

All passengers disembarked and were accommodated on a later flight.

The emergency landing was the third incident for the airline within a week.

Last Saturday, a flight bound for Munich was forced to return to Dublin shortly after it took off at 7.30am. Flight EI-352 had 148 passengers and crew on board.

A few minutes after take-off, the crew contacted air traffic controllers to advise of a problem. The pilot informed controllers: “We have a slight problem here in the cabin and we’d like to level off.”

The Airbus A320-200 jet levelled off at 16,000ft and flew two circuits over the Irish Sea to allow the crew to assess the problem and reduce altitude before returning to the airport.

There was confusion over whether there was smoke in the cockpit or fumes in the passenger cabin. The plane landed safely at Dublin at 8.02am and continued to the terminal where passengers disembarked.

Airport crash crews were standing by for the aircraft and remained with the plane for a time after it.

Aer Lingus said all passengers were accommodated on later flights.

Meanwhile, last Monday, an Aer Lingus flight leaving JFK Airport in New York had to return to make an emergency landing

Flight EI110, carrying 115 passengers, returned to the airport after the pilots received a failure notification in relation to the jet’s hydraulic system and landing gear.

An audio recording of the communications between the pilot and Air Traffic Control at JFK revealed the pilot informing the airport of the possibility of having to return.

“We do have a technical issue here — we lost our hydraulic system, one hydraulic system so we are going to have to return to Kennedy at some stage, not quite yet,” said the pilot.