‘Near miss’ for Ryanair Stansted flight

A Ryanair plane from Stansted Airport nearly collided in mid-air with a holiday jet off the south east coast of Ireland last September, an inquiry has found. The plane's pilots were not warned by Shannon Airport radar control they were on a collision course despite four warnings and three control system alerts. The two planes got so close that the pilot on one said afterwards that he had ‘brief visual contact’ of the other plane.

The Ryanair Boeing 737 was en route from Stansted to Cork, carrying 179 passengers and 6 crew, while a Flightline MD-83 was carrying 164 passengers and 6 crew from Faro to Dublin on September 23 last year. The planes were in critically dangerous proximity - within 600 feet of each other and within 17 seconds of impact - the official report said.

The Irish Air Accident Investigators Unit (AAIU) said potential disaster was only averted by the quick action of the pilots, alerted by their own onboard systems. The AAIU investigator blamed the potential disaster on a ‘critical failure’ of the air traffic controllers to deal with the situation, concluding that the near disaster was the result of ‘human error’.

Two air traffic controllers - the radar controller and the planning controller - had their licences temporarily suspended at the time, but were reinstated within weeks following an internal investigation. The radar controller, who had less than 2 years experience in the job and was responsible for guiding the two planes, was given re-training while no action was taken in the case of the planning controller, who has 30 years experience.

The AAIU said that it was the most serious aviation incident in Irish air space for 7 years. The Irish Aviation Authority said it accepted all the report's safety recommendations, which were now being implemented.