Ryanair pilot left red-faced by error in landing

[Naim 6]

Eirjet A-320 operated on behalf of Ryanair. Saw the stranded plane on telly just now.

 

 

"Newspaper headline writers had a field day this morning with 'Ryanwhere?' and 'Errorjet' amongst the best offerings."

 

.ny

 

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Belfast Telegraph Home > News > Northwest Edition

Ryanair pilot left red-faced by error in landing

 

30 March 2006

 

The pilot who flew a Ryanair flight into an Army base was "very embarrassed" by his mistake, the Manager of Derry Airport said today.

 

Seamus Devine said he sympathised with the Eirjet pilot who is now at the centre of an investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority into how the Eirjet flight from Liverpool (flown on behalf of Ryanair) ended up at Ballykelly airfield six miles away.

 

Concerns were also raised today about the lack of fire cover at Ballykelly, a legal requirement at all commercial airports.

 

Flight FR9884 landed at 14.40 yesterday (almost on time) with 39 passengers and 6 crew onboard.

 

According to a statement from Ryanair, the Eirjet pilot mistakenly believed he was on a visual approach to City of Derry. No emergency landing was required.

 

Helicopters and light aircraft are the only air traffic at the Army base. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said today that it was "probably the first time since the Second World War that a fixed wing plane of that size has touched down in Ballykelly".

 

Aircraft steps had to be transported from City of Derry airport to Ballykelly to get the passengers off the plane and into a coach to take them to their intended destination.

 

The scheduled return flight to Liverpool was cancelled. It is understood that the plane remained at Ballykelly overnight pending the completion of an investigation.

 

Seamus Devine, Manager of Derry airport and a former air traffic controller and pilot, said this morning that pilot error in this sort of situation was unusual but not unheard of.

 

"A pilot is just a human being after all. His instruments may be saying one thing but if he has a visual of the airstrip he may think his instruments are wrong and land it. I spoke to him yesterday and he was very embarrassed".

 

Newspaper headline writers had a field day this morning with 'Ryanwhere?' and 'Errorjet' amongst the best offerings.

 

As the runway at Ballykelly is not needed for large aircraft the tarmac and other trappings are not kept to large aircraft standards.

 

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http://www.flightglobal.com

 

Pilot faces accidents branch quizzing after Ryanair wet lease carrier lands at wrong UK airport

 

The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is leading an inquiry into an incident yesterday when a flight operated on behalf of Ryanair landed on a demi-disused air field several kilometres from its intended destinatiuon.

 

The captain of the Eirjet Airbus A320, operating a UK domestic flight yesterday that landed at Ballykelly UK Army Air Corps base rather than City of Derry airport in Londonderry, 8km (5miles) away, was questioned yesterday by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), but will now face a grilling from the UK AAIB, who has taken over primary investigation of the incident . The Shannon-based airline operates flights under a wet lease agreement with Ryanair.

 

The AAIB is carrying out the investigation jointly with the Irish Air Accidents Unit into how the mistake happened. The IAA will simultaneously study procedures breakdown, although says the incident "is just something that happens". Ryanair has also launched its own investigation into the incident that left passengers stranded onboard the aircraft at the airfield that lacked stairs to disembark passenger jets.

 

Flight FR9884, operated by Eirjet on behalf of Ryanair, landed at Ballykelly airfield instead of City of Derry in Londonderry airport at 14:40 en route from Liverpool John Lennon airport. The Airbus A320 aircraft landed safely and the 39 passengers onboard were bussed to Derry, after waiting for steps to be transported from the main airport, Ryanair says.

 

However Ballykelly airfield, (formerly RAF Ballykelly) has 2,000m (6,600ft) of partially-paved strip, of which only around half is understood to be usable, not least since it is now intersected by a railway line. It has not been used for fixed wing aircraft since 1971 when it was transferred to the UK Army Air Corps to be used as a helicopter base.

 

Ryanair says this "incident arose as a result of an error by the Eirjet pilot who mistakenly believed he was on a visual approach to City of Derry airport. The Eirjet pilot was cleared by air traffic control in City of Derry for a visual approach and mistook the nearby Ballykelly for City of Derry." Ballykelly lies on the same heading as Derry and air charts warn against possible confusion.

 

The A320 positioned "light" from the airfield at 18:20 yesterday back to Liverpool and is back operating commercial services for Ryanair today, Eirjet says. A relief crew flew the A320 and the return flight was cancelled, it adds.

 

Ryanair says: "In over seven years of Ryanair flights into City of Derry airport, and over 20 years of Ryanair operated flights, such a mistake has never occurred before."

 

Eirjet says it will work in full consultation with the investigation.

 

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[Attan 0]

Many years ago an MH F27 made a visual approach for Rwy 04 WMKF thinking it was Rwy 33 WMSA but the crew realised they were mistaken and overshot to return to WMSA.

[Naim 6]

Many years ago an MH F27 made a visual approach for Rwy 04 WMKF thinking it was Rwy 33 WMSA but the crew realised they were mistaken and overshot to return to WMSA.

 

Amazing! For the RyanAir story the airfields are only 8.5min by car apart (as one reporter showed on telly), so very close to each other. Can't say the same for WMKF and WMSA.

 

.ny

[Radzi 2]

Visual approach. Yeah, just turn off all the VORs and ILSs and hope that you got the correct airport. Be confident, don't even cross-check anything. Saved a couple of minutes on the approach. Now how?

[Naim 6]

Follow-up.

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Belfast Telegraph Home > News > Northwest Edition

 

Don't sack Derry flight fiasco pilot

 

By Sarah Brett

30 March 2006

 

A red-faced pilot who landed a Ryanair flight at an Army base by mistake should not face the sack, union chiefs said today.

 

Meanwhile, the findings of the Government investigation into the incident which saw a passenger jet land on a military airfield in Co Derry will not be released for at least two months.

 

The Air Accident Investigation Branch of the Department of Transport will conduct interviews with the pilot and his five crew and examine equipment, including recordings of the conversation between air traffic control in City of Derry airport and the pilot.

 

Flight 9884 from Liverpool, an Eirjet plane flown on behalf of Ryanair, landed six miles away at Ballykelly army base at 2.40pm yesterday with 39 bemused passengers on board.

 

Ryanair quickly laid blame at the feet of Eirjet and its pilot.

 

"The incident arose as a result of an error by the Eirjet pilot who mistakenly believed he was on a visual approach to City of Derry Airport," the company's statement read.

 

Captain Mervyn Granshaw, chairman of the British Airlines Pilots' Association (BALPA), said lessons needed to be learnt.

 

"Clearly this is a very worrying issue. I ultimately hope that the airline operator does not summarily dismiss these people because we do need to learn.

 

"We have a fragile no- blame, open safety reporting culture.

 

"We recognise in aviation that human beings are fallible, from simple things like putting teabags in a milk jug to the other end of the spectrum of landing at the wrong runway. There are human failings."

 

City of Derry Airport manager, Seamus Devine, echoed BALPA's calls and called for leniency for the embarrassed pilot.

 

"He was very embarrassed as anyone would be," he said.

 

"I was embarrassed and there was nothing I could have done about it. The aviation industry is a non- blame industry in every facet. If we ever get to the stage when we scapegoat someone then the whole industry from a safety point of view will be seriously damaged."

 

Concerns were also raised today about the lack of fire cover at Ballykelly, a legal requirement at all commercial airports.

 

Mr Devine said: "We can't get into what ifs. The (pilot) behaved very professionally. He did not attempt to take off again and all the passengers disembarked safely onto a coach to take them to City of Derry."

 

No emergency landing was required.

 

Helicopters and light aircraft are the only air traffic at the base. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said it was "probably the first time since the Second World War that a fixed wing plane of that size has touched down in Ballykelly".

 

The Ballykelly blunder is not the first time a plane's flight path has gone awry in Northern Ireland.

 

In 1989, Dan Air flight 141 from Newcastle landed on a private runway five miles away from Belfast International Airport. None of the 29 passengers were injured in the incident, which was described by the Civil Aviation Authority as "highly unusual".

[Imran K. 0]

You know what I dont understand...

 

1) Was the controller even awake? Wouldn't he have noticed on his radar that the aircraft is approaching a different airport?

 

2) As per what Radzi said...didnt the pilot have his navaids primed? The airfield of Londonderry has an NBD, and an ILS system on Runway 26. How could the pilot have forgotten to tune into at least one of these navaids?

 

On top of that...its an A320 with full EFIS capabilities.

 

If its a 737-200 or a DC8...a little leeway COULD be granted. <_>

[H Azmal 0]

Try St. Albans & Caerdydd...

Edited March 31, 2006 by H Azmal