Jet to return as tourist attraction 40 years after emergency landing on Cork racetrack

Captain Ruben Ocana became an overnight celebrity while he spent six weeks in Mallow as a special runway was built to allow him to take off again

The Gulf-stream II jet plane taking off from Mallow Racecourse in 1983.

A jet that made international headlines following an emergency landing at an Irish town’s racecourse 40 years ago looks set to return there permanently while the late pilot’s ashes are to be scattered over the track.

Captain Ruben Ocana became an overnight celebrity when he landed a Gulf-stream II jet on Mallow racecourse in Co. Cork in April 1983. It’s just as well he spotted the racecourse as the jet had just three minutes of fuel left.