Ryanair Jet lands at wrong airport in Derry

murphaph

Jet lands at wrong airport in Derry

An investigation was taking place today in Northern Ireland into how a Ryanair passenger jet landed in a military airfield near Derry.
By:Press Association

Thirty-nine passengers and six crew were on board a Ryanair flight from Liverpool which was due to touchdown at City of Derry airport.

But it came down at neighbouring Ballykelly air field, five miles short of its intended destination.

Passengers and their luggage were taken off, leaving the jet grounded on the orders of aviation authorities who demanded an immediate investigation.

A City of Derry spokesperson confirmed the Airbus A320 had landed in error.

Ryanair confirmed the plane had landed at the military base mistakenly and has called for a full inquiry.

It said in a statement: "Flight FR9884 operated by Eirjet on behalf of Ryanair landed safely at Ballykelly airport instead of City of Derry airport at 14.40 today.

"This incident arose as a result of an error by the Eirjet`s pilot who mistakenly believed he was on a visual approach to City of Derry airport."

The statement added: "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.

"All passenger disembarked the aircraft normally and were coached to City of Derry airport.

"Ryanair has notified both the IAA (Irish Aviation Authority) and CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) of this Eirjet error.

"We have also asked Eirjet, the operator of the aircraft, to carry out a full investigation into this matter as 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."

Link:eek:

PhoenixRising

It was a wet-lease (aircraft+flight crew) Eirjet A320, so not a Ryanair owned aircraft and not Ryanair pilots. Big cock-up for Eirjet though.

Zebra3

Lucky they weren't shot down!!!!! :eek:

The Doktor

Maybe they were dropping off prisoners for the CIA??:D

Random

Bloody lovely stuff

crosstownk

Imagine what your Mrs would say if you parked in a driveway 6 doors down!!!!

PhoenixRising

RTE News report and video footage from the 9 o'clock news here. Link will only be valid for a few hours.

Random

What are you using to view .smil streams ?

johnnyrotten

ciaranfo wrote:

What are you using to view .smil streams ?

Realplayer

smashey

Maybe they were low on fuel.

Capt'n Midnight

Was going to ask about customs but just realised it was an internal flight.

lostinsuperfunk

I was on a Ryanair flight to Luton in the late 90s and the pilot announced the destination as Stansted when the doors were shut and the plane was ready for takeoff. After a commotion on board, one of the crew must have told him that the passengers had expected to go to Luton.
Ryanair didn't back down without a fight though. At first, instead of believing the passengers (who had passed through a gate with "Luton" posted above it and were in possession of boarding passes with "Luton" written on them) they called the gardai on board to subdue the cargo and also issued a stern schoolteacherly warning telling everyone to behave themselves. Eventually, the pilot apologised and blamed "operations" for telling him the wrong destination and we ended up in Luton about 5 hours late.

Karoma

Zebra3 wrote:

Lucky they weren't shot down!!!!! :eek:

..instead, the soldiers stood around shooting pictures...

Here, have a pearoast

murphaph

Karoma wrote:

pearoast

macfran

Very funny.:D

Hagar

Since the aircraft didn't land at Derry City Airport can they claim back the airport/landing taxes as appropriate?

Winters

If you look at the aerials (http://www.google.com/lochp?hl=en&tab=wl&q=) you can see how easy it was for the pilot to mistake the runways. They are very close in the same direction. Dunno how he missed the sea on the approach though.

BrianD

Wow they are close together and almost look identical visually. I assume that when you look at Google Earth, Derry airport is to the west of the bay and the military airfield is to the east (above Ballykelly). Google puts 'Londonderry Airport' somewhere else to the south.

While it was pilot area one has to ask what sort of procedures are in place in Derry airport that allows a plane to land elsewhere when they are supposed to have sight of it?

Victor

Or how he missed the railway running across the runway .....

I hadn't realise there were two airports there. A similar problem happened at Aldergrove a few years ago, I think with one of the British airlines.

BendiBus

Happens all the time (well from to time anyway).

http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html

Some of them didn't even land in the right country!

enterprise

Victor wrote:

Or how he missed the railway running across the runway .....

I was waiting for that!

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/7755809?view=Eircomnet

Veteran pilot's wings clipped for landing at wrong airport
From:The Irish Independent
Friday, 31st March, 2006
Anita Guidera and Darren Ennis

A BUNGLING pilot who landed his passenger jet at the wrong airport has been grounded.

He has been told he will not be allowed back into the cockpit until a full inquiry is carried out.

Unions have urged Eirjet bosses not to sack him, but his future is unclear after he landed on Wednesday at a military base six miles short of his intended destination at City of Derry Airport.

A spokesman for the airline confirmed: "He's no longer flying until the investigation is completed.

"It's normal procedure when there's an incident like this, the pilot will be asked to step down."

Budget airline Ryanair, which operates the Liverpool to Derry route, drafted in its own Boeing 737 plane and crew yesterday following the error. But it faced further complications when the flight, due to arrive at 2.25pm, was delayed by more than three hours.

As it did so, aviation officials questioned the pilot who blundered while in charge of 39 passengers on board the Airbus A320.

A Co Dublin man who has 30 years' service with top European airlines, he joined Eirjet nearly 18 months ago.

The Civil Aviation and Irish Aviation Authorities will decide his fate, but the company was understood to be standing by him.

Union representatives urged airline chiefs not to sack him. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said: "The pilot seems to have made a stupid mistake." In Brussels for a Ryanair promotion, he added: "Never in our 20-year year history has an incident like this happened."


Lessons

Captain Mervyn Granshaw, British Airlines Pilots' Association chairman, said lessons must be learned.

Eirjet was operating the flight on behalf of Ryanair because a Boeing strike in Seattle caused a shortage of available jets. Its two-month contract ends tomorrow.

The airline apologised for the incident, now being examined by the Government's air accident investigation branch.

Some passengers were shaken, but Eirjet insisted their safety had not been compromised. Among them was student Helen Scott (19), Ramelton, Co Donegal, who was returning home for a three-week break from Manchester University.

"It was more funny than scary at the start but it turned out a little annoying because I knew my parents were waiting for me at Derry City Airport and would be anxious.

"It would make me think twice about flying back with Ryanair to Liverpool in three weeks' time," she said.

Capt Granshaw said today: "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.

"We know this in aviation and we try to put in place processes, checks, balances to make sure that we plug all those gaps."

In a statement issued yesterday, Ryanair said Eirjet's pilot had mistakenly believed he was on a visual approach to the City of Derry Airport.

Eirjet, based in Shannon, Co Clare, said a full probe would be carried out. "Eirjet wish to stress that passenger safety was not compromised and the incident involved the aircraft landing at a runway which is exactly in line with the main runway at City of Derry Airport." The airline apologised to the passengers for the inconvenience.

The pilots' handbook for flights heading to Derry alerts them to the close proximity of the Ballykelly military airfield to the City of Derry Airport.

Capt Granshaw insisted the air carrier needed to focus on why the error had been made.

He told BBC Radio Ulster: "We have to encourage people to report their mistakes. Not all mistakes end up like yesterday. Some are fairly innocuous but in other circumstances could be quite dangerous . . . "There is a whole range of issues. I call it the Swiss cheese. Only occasionally when all the barriers break down do you get all the holes in the Swiss cheese lining up - and we work very hard to make sure it doesn't happen."

jlang

Did the plane take off again and go to Derry? Or did the passengers get a bus? Or did they do a Ryanair and leave them on the tarmac?

Karoma

jlang wrote:

Did the plane take off again and go to Derry? Or did the passengers get a bus? Or did they do a Ryanair and leave them on the tarmac?

It's Ryanair... They charged them for the privilege.

Random

The plane is still impounded on the tarmac with the pilot suspended.

The passengers were sent by bus (unsure if Ryanair charged them or not ) to their correct destination

Sarsfield

ciaranfo wrote:

The plane is still impounded on the tarmac...

No it's not. It was ferried back to Liverpool a few hours later.

godfather69er

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME RYANAIR LANDED IN THE RIGHT DESTINATION AND NOT 50 MILES AWAY????.

and i know it was a chartered aircraft but landing in the wrong place is ryanairs 'policy' as will be the charging for life vests soon

godfather69er

jlang wrote:

Did the plane take off again and go to Derry? Or did the passengers get a bus? Or did they do a Ryanair and leave them on the tarmac?

the runway is prob too short for the airbus to take off.

BendiBus

The runway is huge apparently. Ballykelly was built for cold war bombers. The Airbus is long gone.

Here's the airfields from above from Google Maps. Ballykelly (the one to the east of all that water) is longer than Derry

seamus

In fairness, six miles isn't a huge distance when you're travelling at 250mph. Although I'm still confused as to how traffic control and the pilot never noticed that their readings didn't match...

Darwin

Yes, six miles is nothing at that speed. I understand the pilot was on a visual approach and not using the ILS system. I too was wondering how on earth air traffic control at Derry failed to notice a missing Airbus!

Capt'n Midnight

godfather69er wrote:

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME RYANAIR LANDED IN THE RIGHT DESTINATION AND NOT 50 MILES AWAY????.

and i know it was a chartered aircraft but landing in the wrong place is ryanairs 'policy' as will be the charging for life vests soon

<cough> The Copenhagen route didn't even go to Denmak </cough> :rolleyes:

Was it cloudy ? one of the runways may have been hidden.
Was it wet ? one of the runways may have shone out with it's reflection.

What's got me worried is that so far no has mentioned a co-pilot :eek:

BendiBus

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

What's got me worried is that so far no has mentioned a co-pilot :eek:

The media tend to ignore co-pilots. Or report them as though they were students learning to fly.

However I imagine on this occasion the they would be quite happy to stay out of the story. The Chief Pilot at Eirjet will probably want a word though

jackofalltrades

Was it cloudy ? one of the runways may have been hidden.

It was a visual approach, if the pilot wasn't able to see the runway he would have attempted an instrument approach.

Red Alert

so it would be ok if the surgeon operated on my other knee?

this serious lack of attention to detail could have placed everyone's life in danger, both passengers and the army personnel at the base. what would have happenned if the army thought the plane was hijacked (which would explain why it was heading towards their base).

makes you wonder if such a cavalier attitude pervades all flight crews

corktina

the co-pilot was one of those inflatable ones........the captain was watching the Stewardess blowing it up at the time.......

you would think it was a huge april fool had it not been for 9/11........

Winters

From what I can see on the aerials the railway runs alongside both airfields.

Alfasudcrazy

Air traffic control at Ballykelly are equally to blame as they should have advised the aircraft of its error before it ever even came near to landing. :mad:

BrianD

Red Alert wrote:

so it would be ok if the surgeon operated on my other knee?

this serious lack of attention to detail could have placed everyone's life in danger, both passengers and the army personnel at the base. what would have happenned if the army thought the plane was hijacked (which would explain why it was heading towards their base).

makes you wonder if such a cavalier attitude pervades all flight crews

A highly improbably situation by any stretch of the imagination.

While the crew have to shoulder the blame, I sense that there should be a review of all aspects of operations at Derry airport.

John R

Winters wrote:

From what I can see on the aerials the railway runs alongside both airfields.

It runs right beside Derry airport but the unusual thing at Ballykelly is that it runs across the main runway.

secret_squirrel

Red Alert wrote:

this serious lack of attention to detail could have placed everyone's life in danger, both passengers and the army personnel at the base. what would have happenned if the army thought the plane was hijacked (which would explain why it was heading towards their base).

Its a big deal but not a huge one. It has happened at BallyKelly several times in the past. I know of 2 occasions with Shorts 360's.

The situation was exacerbated by the fact the pilots were flying on visual rules (they have to do this several times a year to keep in practice), and the fact that the runway at ballykelly is directly in line with the runway at Derry according to a pilot friend of mine.

If it helps the pilot, co-pilot and the Air Traffic Control people involved will be lucky if they ever work again.

Eirjet will probably be put under severe financial strain as a result of this too.

dowlingm

Two points but am open to correction has have picked this up on PPRuNe.

1. I don't think there is active ATC at Ballykelly as it's only active as a helipad.
2. The ILS was being calibrated, thus the visual approach.

BendiBus

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=06&month=apr&story=gen-en-010406

Ryanair News

---

News Release

---

01.04.06
RYANAIR ANNOUNCES 16th EUROPEAN BASE IN DERRY BALLYKELLY
Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fares airline, today (Saturday, 1st April 2006) announced its 16th European base, in Derry Ballykelly airport.

On Wednesday last, the independent surveyors, Eirjet, working on behalf of Ryanair held an impromptu meeting with representatives from Ballykelly Airport Loading and Logistics Services (BALLS). The military precision of the operation, un-congested, low cost facilities, impeccable turn out and well-drilled staff led Eirjet to advise Ryanair that these were clearly people it could do business with.

Announcing the new base today, Leo Hairy Camel, Ryanair’s CEO designate said:

“This is not a load of Barracks. Since its inception, Ryanair has been waging war on high cost airports, and our announcement today of a new base at Costa Del Ballykelly is just another of our military manoeuvres to continue to lower fares for European consumers. Ballykelly Airport is a breath of fresh air and this development marks the demise of Taj-Mahal airports run by fat cats. Ballykelly secured this base by fluke despite intense competition from over 50 airports throughout Europe. Airport operators the length and breadth of Europe are today taking note that the future of airports lies in simple, functional, low cost facilities. Ryanair’s new route from Ballykelly to Nocincz (pronounced Nochance) will go on sale today on www.ryanair.com/aprilfooledyou".

---

Random

That's brilliant... glad people can still laugh

John R

Wonder if they'd be so humorous if it had been one of their own planes?

BuffyBot

Wonder if they'd be so humorous if it had been one of their own planes?

Probably. They do tend to weather things out under the mantra of there is no such thing as bad publicity..

secret_squirrel

dowlingm wrote:

1. I don't think there is active ATC at Ballykelly

Theres a private flyschool there as well afaik, however doesnt that mean that Derry ATC should have been monitoring the situation??

I presume you are talking about the planes ILS (rather than the ILS equipment at Derry)

therecklessone

secret_squirrel wrote:

I presume you are talking about the planes ILS (rather than the ILS equipment at Derry)

No, he means the EGAE ILS.

Unconfirmed eyewitness account from PPRUNE:

Sorry to report I saw the incident happen and also heard it on the radio. The A320 crew elected to go around after losing the ILS signals and asked for circuit details. From a viewing position west of Eglinton I saw the A320 turned downwind RH at EGQB(I believe the pilot said he thought he was to high to land but he looked perfect to me i.e. wrong airfield). The radio at EGAE got rather involved on the servicablity of the ILS and the controller annouced he was listening( on an Icom) to the ident though it could not be recognised. The Calibrater was holding at 15miles east and all the lights were on even the flashing lead in approach lights. The A320 turned tight base at Ballykelly and then disappeared from my view. The controller asked for a DME and pilot reported on the ground. He landed on 26 at EGQB stopping just short of the railway line that crosses the runway.

Dare I suggest we wait for the CAA/IAA/AAIU reports before we jump to conclusions? Not as fun as a three page thread on boards I'll grant you, but it would be the prudent thing to do..

BendiBus

British MOD may decide to charge a landing fee

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/04/02/story252167.html

DubTony

It seems to me that the pilot wanted to change jobs and was proving that, in the great tradition of Ryanair, he too can land at "the city's other airport".