Ryanair denies reports of narrowly-avoided crash in Rome

Ryanair has denied reports that one of its aircraft narrowly avoided crashing into the ground at an airport in Rome last year.

A story in the latest edition of Village magazine says the pilot, who had recently lost one of his children, suffered a temporary breakdown as the plane was approaching Fiumicino Airport during a thunderstorm.

The article claims a number of automatic warnings sounded in the cockpit to alert the crew that the aircraft was descending too fast and would crash if averting action was not taken.

The co-pilot eventually intervened and pulled the plane out of its descent before landing the craft at another airport outside Rome.

The Village said the article was based on an internal Ryanair report on the incident that did not reveal the date of the incident or the number of the flight involved.

Responding to the story this morning, the airline said the bulk of the details were correct, but it insisted that the plane involved did not come anywhere close to crashing.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said the incident was properly handled by the pilots on board and "at no stage did it nearly crash or come close to a crash".