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Further to the interest received by our article last week following an unexplained event on a Ryanair flight from Alicante to Bristol, Tumbit has spoken to the passenger who reported the event to us to see if further information has been forthcoming.
As previous contributors to the comments below the original news article have suggested, it is quite likely that the events were due to some mundane procedure, however this does not explain the lack of communication to passengers by the airline crew to that effect.
The passenger, who asked to remain nameless, told us further details about the flight :"After the cabin crew checked under our seats the plane prepared for departure, but everytime the plane hit a bump or turned whilst taxiing, the tanoy system would crackle as if there was a lose wire or something."
"Even once airbourne, the crackle could be heard, then the seatbelt signs flickered on and off several times during the flight, again sort of like a lose wire and no instruction was announced for people to return to their seat like if there was turbulence or something".
Describing the flight further, the passenger explained that "on approach into Bristol, the plane weaved left to right almost like a stunt pilot dipping the wings either side as part of their display. But the worst was the landing".
Of course, it is far from unusual for aircraft to bank during an approach, often directed to do so by air traffic control as part of the approach pattern, however the weaving from side to side can only be described as unusual.
As the plane approached the runway, passengers onboard could see the plane was coming in quite fast, which alarmed many of the passengers. "I've flown a few times with Ryanair and most landings can be quite hard, but with this landing we bounced and swerved across the runway... It was really scary!".
Ryanair operates a fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft which by design makes them prone to particularly hard landings, especially in windy or bad weather conditions as pilotss attempt to land them firmly on the runway. On this occasion however, the weather was overcast but no noticable wind or bad weather.
The Irish airline is quite well known for hard landings and any search engine search for "Ryanair hard landing" will return several results including videos taken by passengers.
However, aside from the odd procedure before take-off and the turbulent flight, the questions continued : "When we pulled up to the terminal, we were mer by 2 fire appliances who pulled up along side us and several security personnel on the ground".
The passenger managed to record some footage of the event on their mobile phone, which we have verified with Bristol airport >>>
Once again, Ryanair did not respond to our request for an explanation.
Speculation is that the airline is reacting promptly to any such event whilst the investigation by Spain's Ministry of Industry - which could see them lose their licence to operate in Spain for 3 years - is on going.
Do you have any interesting experiences with Ryanair or any other carrier to and from Spain? If so, Tumbit would love to hear from you! Please contact us and tell us about your experiences...
Interesting Articles ;
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4244285/Panic-as-Ryanair-jet-plunges-20000-feet.html
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Bumpy-landing-caused-undulating-runway/story-16105210-detail/story.html
http://www.davidjackson.info/2012/ryanair-flight-evacuated-at-valencia-after-fuel-pours-from-wing-onto-runway.htm