RYANAIR LANDS AT WRONG AIRPORT!!

do they not have radar to monitor visual approaches

They have NO radar at all.

As for “comet landing at Nutts corner 12-15 years ago” I have been a controller at EGAA/BFS since 1986 and I have never heard of it.I remember a DanAir 748 landing at Langford and a Bulgarian TU154 tried to do the same when I was tower controller one day but the comet…..nope new one on me.(although the proximity to the 35 approach would lead me to suspect it has been tried 🙂 )

Are you a Ryanair pilot/employee then?

Yep, First Officer and loving it.(except the getting up 4am part 😮 )

Here’s a pic of Ballykelly etc. If you take a ruler or a piece of paper, it can be seen that both of the main runways at Ballykelly and Eglinton line up perfectly. If Limavady is mistaken to be Ballykelly you can see how this can happen. Indeed Loganair did the same thing and the crew tried to cover it up by departing again 😉

If Ballykelly’s runway is not in use it should have the ‘Xs’ painted on it to warn pilots.

Lessons to be learned again.

How could a so called highly trained captain make such stupid mistake, it could have ended in disaster

The day you stop making mistakes is the day you retire!…generally only small ones I hasten to add, easily picked up by the other bloke (or blokess) in the flightdeck.

Ballykelly’s main runway has a very similar orientation to Derry and is almost perfectly aligned with it, both airfields have the classic three runway wartime layout. Derry’s charts warn about a disused airfield to the east…however, to the east of Ballykelly is another diused airfield (Limavady).

Add to that, possibly, crew unfamiliarity, a ATCer (allegedly) concentrating on another aircraft calibrating the ILS (which may have been U/S at the time) and you can see how circumstances can conspire against the crew. Accidents/incidents are very rarely down to a single cause and are usually the culmination of a sequence of (often trivial) events.

Both pilots grounded until further notice pending report. Michael O’Leary isn’t mad, it wasn’t his aircraft. The saying ‘all publicity is good publicity’ is very true. It happens quite regularly even as navigation equipment becomes more reliable, it’s not the first and won’t be the last time.

As with all aviation incidents it appears a string of very simple factors led to this landing (go-around, navigation aids off for calibration, distracted controller, proximity and layout of mistaken airstrip) which will come out in the investigation. There’s lessons to be learned for everybody.

For the Ryanair haters, let those of you who have never made a mistake throw the first stone. If you knew what you were talking about you wouldn’t be so quick.

We also have another saying for the haters; FTB (F~~@ The Begrudgers)

Are you a Ryanair pilot/employee then?

Pilot should be allowed to keep his job however suffer some sort of demotion, perhaps F/O and a further pay decrease on the inevitable pay decrease that a demotion would bring?

It’s very easy to point the finger at the pilots but surely ATC at Eglinton must shoulder some of the blame – do they not have radar to monitor visual approaches?

How could a so called highly trained captain make such stupid mistake, it could have ended in disaster

Both pilots grounded until further notice pending report. Michael O’Leary isn’t mad, it wasn’t his aircraft. The saying ‘all publicity is good publicity’ is very true. It happens quite regularly even as navigation equipment becomes more reliable, it’s not the first and won’t be the last time.

As with all aviation incidents it appears a string of very simple factors led to this landing (go-around, navigation aids off for calibration, distracted controller, proximity and layout of mistaken airstrip) which will come out in the investigation. There’s lessons to be learned for everybody.

For the Ryanair haters, let those of you who have never made a mistake throw the first stone. If you knew what you were talking about you wouldn’t be so quick.

We also have another saying for the haters; FTB (F~~@ The Begrudgers)

Can’t find anything out of the ordinary here! Ryanair have been flying to the “wrong” airport for most cities for the past decade, haven’t they 😉

I would like too say that too O leary face 😡

james

ive heard that the pilot has been grounded till wednesday and o leary is very mad

Can’t find anything out of the ordinary here! Ryanair have been flying to the “wrong” airport for most cities for the past decade, haven’t they 😉

My dads friends from the fire brigade work at the airport and they said that it doesnt look like the pilots going to keep his job. Also i think the controller is going to get an earfull.
Aircraft for runway 26 dont get cleared to land until theyre beside the army base most of the time.

The poor pilot its not his fault just made a mistake everyone makes mistake :dev2: does anyone know what will happen to the pilot?

James

Renfrew – Yep closed down now and the Aviation Museum moved out – they wont say where to but my money is on newly opened Enniskillen Airport!

Cryptic message unless you were responding publicly to a PM, but if you are referring to the Ulster Aviation Society’s collection which was housed at Langford Lodge, then you’ve just lost your money. It’s definitely not at Enniskillen.

Shame it wasn’t a Ryanair aircraft 🙁 – that’d have given O’Leary a good slapping! 😉

Andy

Yup i think its gone.
I heard the loudest rumble over my house there. I’m about 1/2mile from the army base and it was noisy!! :p

You mean just like the bmi A321 taking off from Belfast City Airport every hour? :p

Yup i think its gone.
I heard the loudest rumble over my house there. I’m about 1/2mile from the army base and it was noisy!! :p

Pure classic!!! :p .

Apparently the 320 has just left Ballykelly in the last half an hour 🙂

I guess it’ll be there for a day or so to take the black boxes out. Having flown a 738 into LDY before, all I can say is that they should have read the chart which states ‘Pilots are reminded of the close proximity of Ballykelly 5nm to the east-northeast of this aerodrome. Ballykelly runway lighting may be observed to the final approach to Runway 26. Pilots should poitively identify Eglinton before comitting the aircraft to landing.’

Ballykelly is directly under the approach to LDY with runways in the same position and layout so I can see how this could happen but there you go. Eirjet have been operating daily into LDY so they should familiar with it, however I know they now have temporary contract pilots working for them in order to keep up with the demand from Ryanair. It’s unfortunate but I’ll be surprised if no one has done it before.

BTW, Ryanair’s engines aren’t derated as is contrary to popular opinion but are rarely needed at anywhere near full whack.