CIvil Aviatioan Authorities ground VAN Air

PukkaStukka

Looks like the Civil Aviation Authorities have asked Van Air not to fly following an unspecified and highly unusual incident during Storm Doris in the Isle of Man. Report about it here on AVHerald.

http://avherald.com/h?article=4a567f53&opt=0

arubex

As that web page implies, no-one is saying publicly what actually happened or why the CAA became involved.

Certainly the crew made an attempt to land at Belfast City, the Mode-S data confirms that; at the same time a BA and FlyBE flight diverted to International due to the sudden escalation in wind.

But everything after that point is confused and the silence from the CAAs of all countries is baffling. Is the AOC suspended, yes or no? If not then Van Air should be permitted to continue flying. When else have the actions of one crew caused an airline to be grounded? Can you imagine the same happening for Ryanair?


Fair play to Citywing ( the ticket-seller ), they're often bashed for being a "virtual airline" but showed their flexibility by chartering a Titan 737 for a day and then contracting North Flying into continue services.

Irish Steve

I suspect that there's a knee jerk reaction going on here as a result of the Manx 2 crash in Cork, the suggestion that Van Air landed back in the IOM below reserves (which was not the case on investigation) will have triggered all sorts of emergency responses, and given the number of regulators involved, they're now all falling over themselves to cover their corporate backsides, partly because they were so far behind the game with Manx2.

I suspect that there will be more come out over time about this, but for sure they are going to make sure that they never get caught again like they did with the Metro operation.

What may be a factor is that Doris turned out to be a lot stronger than was forecast, which may have been a factor in the landing back on the IOM.

Given that Flybe bent an aircraft at Amsterdam during the same storm, this does seem on face value to have been an excessive response to a situation that did not have a negative outcome, but until the full facts are clear, we won't know if there's more to it than has been revealed so far.

cml387

AAIB have issued a report on this incident. Seems like it wasn't the first time the operator had landed outside crosswind limits. Also a bit of an explanation why the IOM CAA made them stop on the taxiway.