FR1313 BHX-SNN Emergency landing

I haven’t posted much here recently but I thought you may be interested to read my emergency landing experience on FR1313 yesterday.

I wasn’t planning on doing a trip report for this flight as I assumed it would be a run of the mill Ryanair flight. Little did I know. For this reason, there are no pics and the details of the flight may be a little sketchy. However, I thought you’d all be interested to hear my story of an emergency landing in Shannon. Here goes…….

FR1313 BHX-SNN
STD: 14:50
ATD: Around 15:15
STA: 16:00
ATA: Around 16:45

I was the first on board the flight. I had purchased priority boarding as I knew the flight was full and because FR have just reduced the price to €2 each way. Because of this, I was able to get my favourite seat, 1A. Front row window. You have loads of room and are always off first so it’s fab. The flight was nearly full with 171 PAX plus the usual 4 cabin crew and 2 cockpit crew.

It took ages for everyone to board as the flight was so full. Also, the aircraft had arrived a little late from SNN so we ended up pushing back about 25 minutes late. We taxied to the runway and took off as normal. The captain released the cabin crew after about 5 minutes and they started to prepare the bar service. While they were doing this, the captain rang the cabin crew. The lead FA answered and started sniffing the air. She said “I wasn’t at the front for takeoff so I don’t know. Now you mention it, I can smell something. I’ll ask the FA who was at the front whether she smelt anything on takeoff”. At this point, I knew something was wrong. There’s only one thing that the captain wants to know if the cabin crew can smell and it’s not that the first officer has farted Wink. The FA who sat at the front of the cabin went in to the cockpit for a few minutes and, when she came out, the lead FA phoned the rear galley and told them not to start the bar service. I immediately assumed we’d be going back to BHX or diverting to DUB but we kept climbing. I was pretty nervous at this point because I didn’t like the thought that the captain could smell burning but was continuing with the flight but there was little I could do.

The crew began to count the bar and duty free items as it was their last flight of the day and they were not doing a cabin service. I have to say at this point that no announcements were made and the seatbelt sign was not switched off. Apart from me, nobody realised that anything was amiss at all. This didn’t do anything for my heart rate but was good because nobody else was panicking.

We began our descent around 20 minutes before landing as usual and I thought that the ordeal was soon to be over. The FA who had sat at the front for takeoff was called back into the cockpit and shortly after she came out, the cabin crew had a meeting in the forward galley. After they had finished this, the male FA who was sat opposite me looked white. He was sh**ting himself to be honest!

The captain came on with “Cabin crew 10 minutes” but did not say “to landing”. We then continued the descent as normal and the captain said “cabin crew, take your seats” but again did not add “for landing”. I was so relieved to see us flying the normal approach to runway 24 at SNN and to see the slats come down and hear the landing gear being extended.

We came in over the business park as usual and I noticed fire engines at the side of the runway as I was expecting. However, when we reached about 100 feet, the captain gunned the engines and we went around. I was really panicking at this point as I still thought he could simply smell smoke so couldn’t work out why on earth he would abort what seemed to be a perfectly normal landing.

We climbed away from SNN and the slats went up but the landing gear did not. I thought this was pretty odd but had to just assume (or hope!) that the guys in the cockpit knew what they were doing. I asked the FA in front of me if she was expecting the go-around and she said “Yes”.

The captain then finally came on the PA and told us that they had some issues with lights in the cockpit. He said we would fly around for a bit while they worked out what was wrong and keep us informed. This was the first indication that the rest of the passengers had that anything was amiss. I knew this excuse was rubbish as they’d been aware of a problem since shortly after takeoff but I assumed that it was the best way of not panicking everybody.

A few minutes later, the captain came back on the PA and said that there may be a problem with one of the tyres so we were going to come in for a full stop landing in SNN. I then realised why we had gone around. The captain wanted the tower and fire service to have a look at the landing gear. This also explained why we didn’t go back to BHX or divert to DUB. The captain then rang the cabin crew and gave final instructions. I heard the female FA in front of me say “Right. On your command”. I asked her if we were going to be evacuating using the slides and she said “Hopefully not”!

Our second approach was exactly like the first except that everyone was now pretty nervous. Around 500 feet above the ground, the captain came on the PA and said “Brace brace”. The cabin crew then started yelling “Brace brace brace brace……..”. The last few seconds of that flight were the longest of my life. I kept planning what I was going to do when we evacuated and I was fully ready to take my seatbelt off as soon as I heard the command.

We touched down incredibly smoothly and the reverse thrust kicked in but the pilot (I assume the captain landed it) did not use the brakes. Presumably, this was to avoid causing even more overheating if one tyre had actually burst. Landing with your head between your knees is the strangest sensation ever as you have no visual reference of where you are or how fast you’re going. It felt like we weren’t slowing down at all and I was fully ready for us to go off the end of the runway.

As soon as the FAs stopped shouting “Brace”, I lifted my head to see what was going on. We were taxiing on to taxiway alpha. Not only had the captain landed perfectly but he’d also slowed down enough to exit at the first taxiway!! We stopped just after leaving the runway and the whole cabin burst into a round of applause. For the first time ever, I didn’t think this was weird and joined in wholeheartedly.

The captain then came on and said very coolly “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Shannon. We are just stopping here on the taxiway while the fire brigade check our landing gear. If we can continue to the stand, we will. If not, we’ll get you off here”. I couldn’t believe how calm he was but when I spoke to the lead FA outside the terminal later, she said he was in a bit of a state once it was all over.

After about 10 minutes, the fire brigade cleared us to taxi to the stand and we were on blocks around 45 minutes late. Needless to say, they did not play the fanfare Wink. We all disembarked as normal and the airport shop did a roaring trade on cigarettes. It seemed like half of my flight were out in the smoking area Wink.

So that was my emergency landing experience. Looking back, it was a bit of a non-event. There wasn’t actually anything wrong with the tyre and the aircraft flew off to PIK about 45 minutes later. However, I did not realise that when I was in the brace position and planning how to evacuate a burning aircraft. I was very pleased that I wasn’t at the overwing exit. I’d know how to open it but I would have been even more nervous all through the landing as I would have been responsible for many people if we had had to evacuate.

Here are a few observations about the handling of the incident:

1. Overall, I think it was handled very well. I’m glad that they didn’t announce anything too early in the flight as it was only me that realised something was up so everyone else was calm.

2. I think they should have informed us that we would be doing the go-around. I think not knowing what was happening made people much more nervous than necessary.

3. We should definitely have been told that we were going to have to take up the brace position. The first we heard of it was when the captain said “Brace brace”. This is the only major complaint I have. I think a proper briefing with a demonstration of the brace position would have been very useful as Ryanair don’t even mention it in the safety demo and not everyone knows what to do.

4. When it was all over, the cabin crew were brilliant. They were asking everyone if they were OK and if they needed assistance as they were leaving the aircraft.

Apart from point 3 above, I don’t think the incident could have been handled much better. I realise that point 3 is quite a major criticism but none of us know how we’d react as crew in such a situation so I will give them the benefit of the doubt on this occasion.

Finally, I would like to thank the entire crew on FR1313 yesterday for getting us down safely. As far as I’m concerned, they earned every cent of their wage packet during this incident and I would be more than happy to fly with any of them again!

Thanks for reading. I hope this was of interest.

Safe travels!

Gareth

P.S. The flight actually made the Irish news but it sounds a lot less dramatic than it was on board ;-). See here