Eirjet pilot 'unaware of second airfield near Derry airport'

A report out today says the pilot of an Eirjet flight that landed at the wrong airport in Derry last year was unaware of the existence of the second facility.

The Dublin-based flight, operated on behalf of Ryanair, should have landed at Derry Airport, but instead touched down at Ballykelly airfield five miles away.

Today's report by British investigators says the crew of the Airbus A320 had problems with their landing instruments and requested permission to make a visual landing at Derry.

It says the captain tried in vain to obtain a copy of the airport charts and would have been aware of the existence of Ballykelly airfield had he been successful.

However, he didn't know there was a second airfield and assumed, when he saw it, that it was Derry Airport.