Airline’s quick turnaround raises safety fears

YOU report yet another incident involving a Ryanair flight (‘Passengers tell of hysteria during take-off,’ September 16). Presumably the appropriate authorities will carry out thorough investigations into all such events.

However, it is a matter of concern that the low-cost carrier appears to put aircraft turnaround time (usually 20 minutes) among its top priorities.

To the unqualified onlooker, this might look like an efficiency measure. But it is a source of amazement that safety authorities permit this practice to continue. It does not require an aviation degree to assess how long it takes to get 170 people to exit a metal tube via two doors and then to repeat the exercise with boarding passengers. It leaves little room for extra vigilance when it comes to safety precautions, and it certainly worries me.

No doubt the airline conforms to legal requirements, but that is little comfort when one hears of these incidents. This is a serious matter that the authorities should examine.

After all, one can be prosecuted for using a mobile phone while driving. Surely packing 170 people hurriedly into a fuel-filled aircraft is a greater risk.

Tim Collins

Clermont Cottages

South Douglas Road

Cork