Ryanair flight had to return to airport - can i find out why?

thirtythirty

Just a quick question,

Last week on the 20th Feb, the flight I was on (FR 552 @6:30) had to turn around a short while into the flight because "there was a light on in the cabin" and head back to Dublin airport.

I saw all the emergency vehicles on standby beside the runway when we landed, the guards got on board to talk to the pilots, and then we got a new plane for attempt number 2 at reaching Manchester.

Anyway I was just wondering how I find out what "that light" was - do airlines have to formally publish incident information like this anywhere, or would I need to request an FOI from them directly?

Cheers

xflyer

I doubt it, the light could be any one of a number of issues and unless one of our tame Ryanair pilots on this forum knows about it. Then it's unlikely you'll find out what happened. The fact that the emergency vehicles were called wouldn't neccessarily make it a serious incident and reportable. Now if you all evacuated down the slides, that would be different.

You're best bet would have been to ask at the time.

thirtythirty

We did, but were rebounded by a "we don't know" from the cabin crew, even after the guards seemed to have gotten a satisfactory answer and left..

And i highly doubt "the light" was a generic "there is a problem" light like in some old bond movie - surely instruments have sections or groupings or codings so that you can tell that it's electronics / hydraulics / engine at the very least!

It's more out of interest I want to know - I take a ryanair flight every other week so it would be nice to at least get that courtesy

westdub

Every light in the cockpit has a specific warning associated to it, however I doubt if any airline is ever going to tell a passenger which warning light caused the flight to turn around as there are a lot of very technical reasons that cause some of the lights to come on...

xflyer

By 'guards' do you mean the Gardai or was it the Airport Police? Bearing in mind that the fire crews are in fact Airport Police.

Can't see why anyone but the fire crew or Engineers would be interested.

IngazZagni

You won't find out why I'm afraid and an FOI won't work here. They won't file very minor things like this unless it was an actual system fault and not just an indication. It could be any number of reasons. Whatever "light" it was though probably required them to fly to the nearest suitable airport according to Boeing procedures.

Also are you sure those "guards" were not just engineers in high vis jackets? It makes no sense for airport police to come on board in the circumstances you gave.

cml387

If the pilots declared an emergency there will be an incident investigation by the Air Accident people, or if Ryanair choose to report the incident themselves.

Then you would see an official report in a few months time.

Suits

spottyelephant wrote: »

Ryanair flight every other week so it would be nice to at least get that courtesy

I'd expect a regular FR passenger to know better....

IngazZagni

cml387 wrote: »

If the pilots declared an emergency there will be an incident investigation by the Air Accident people, or if Ryanair choose to report the incident themselves.

Then you would see an official report in a few months time.

You would also have heard about it. Pretty much all minor incidents are reported on avherald.com and no Ryanair incident is showing on that date. I mean today they even show a Tuifly that returned to Las Palmas due to lavatory problems lol.

thirtythirty

Ye i checked avherald before and didnt see it either. And yes, it was the garda, which i also thought was strange. Oh well, hopefully my flight tomorrow goes better!

kub

Gardai? I take it you are positive on that.

If so then the plane was probably pulled for speeding and the lads came onboard to see his driving license as they could not reach the cockpit window.

€50 and 2 penalty points for speeding, I hope all pax had their seat belts on.

pclancy

I can't see Garda having any involvement in an airplane systems malfunction, can anyone else?

The cabin crew most likely did not know what was wrong and were just told the airplane had gone tech and to prepare to return to Dublin.

If it was a serious inicdent Ryanair would be obliged to report it and it would appear in the AAI and www.avherald.com listings allthough possibly not for a long time yet.

If we must speculate what it could have been that was serious enough to have airport fire on standby beside the runway it was probably hydralic, brake or engine indication related. Could have been a problem with the airconditioning packs, pressure, an unsecured door or tons of possible electronic or electric issues. You would have known if they shut down an engine. You also cant be sure the airport fire were out for your aircraft, could have been for many other reasons or an aircraft following yours.

Basically there are tons of possible answers to your question but you'll probably never know unless it was quite serious. Airliners expereince small malfunctions all the time. C'est la vie.

Ryanair have one of the finest safety records in the world and you can be confident you had a skilled crew up front that made the right decision to return to Dublin and that your safety was not at any time in jeapordy. I would be the same as you and want to know why we had to divert but sometimes its just not possible to find out and you have to trust your crew did the right thing.

castie

Similar?

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=44b76390&opt=0

Cessna_Pilot

castie wrote: »

Similar?

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=44b76390&opt=0

In what way? The aircraft in question in this thread is reported by the OP to have turned back in flight. Your link is about a rejected take off.

View Profile

If it was the Gardai that boarded and spoke to the flight crew then it sounds more like a security issue. Possibly a bomb threat.

Stovepipe

Hi all
An inflight turnback is regarded as very serious and the Captain would have had to have filed a Serious Incident report with Ryanair, at least and probably the IAA and even the AAIU (if it was part of a trend of a particular system on the type of aircraft failing, ie, a reliability issue that needs flagging with the manufacturer) and certainly the DAA (deploying the fire service is a reportable event). It's also common for the actual Gardai to attend a scene, alongside the Airport Police and the Fire Service, in case it's a personnel issue (ie, someone needs arresting). If you really, really have to know, ask all of the above agencies. If it's not a nuclear secret, there's no reason why they won't tell you.

regards
Stovepipe

IngazZagni

Stovepipe wrote: »

Hi all
An inflight turnback is regarded as very serious and the Captain would have had to have filed a Serious Incident report with Ryanair, at least and probably the IAA and even the AAIU (if it was part of a trend of a particular system on the type of aircraft failing, ie, a reliability issue that needs flagging with the manufacturer) and certainly the DAA (deploying the fire service is a reportable event). It's also common for the actual Gardai to attend a scene, alongside the Airport Police and the Fire Service, in case it's a personnel issue (ie, someone needs arresting). If you really, really have to know, ask all of the above agencies. If it's not a nuclear secret, there's no reason why they won't tell you.

regards
Stovepipe

Oh please, you are making a mountain out of a molehill. None of that would have had to be done unless there was an actual fault that required a turnback and not just an indication as I mentioned.

The "light" probably required engineering attention before going back in the air. Dublin being a big maintenance base and Manchester having no in house cover, it made sense turning back as a delay would have been encountered anyway during the turnaround. If the flight had been from Manchester to Dublin it probably would have continued to Dublin again though depending on the "light" that showed. We don't have that info so it's all speculation...

cml387

Stovepipe wrote: »

Hi all
An inflight turnback is regarded as very serious and the Captain would have had to have filed a Serious Incident report with Ryanair, at least and probably the IAA and even the AAIU (if it was part of a trend of a particular system on the type of aircraft failing, ie, a reliability issue that needs flagging with the manufacturer) and certainly the DAA (deploying the fire service is a reportable event). It's also common for the actual Gardai to attend a scene, alongside the Airport Police and the Fire Service, in case it's a personnel issue (ie, someone needs arresting). If you really, really have to know, ask all of the above agencies. If it's not a nuclear secret, there's no reason why they won't tell you.

regards
Stovepipe

Completely irrelevant to this topic:

Stovepipe, do you get your username from the legendary "chrome plated stovepipe"?

Stovepipe

@inga and CML, I have outlined exactly what happens when an "air turnback" happens. The Captain doesn't make a turnback decision lightly and will be quizzed by his Company, which is why he files a report on the event. These turnbacks are treated very seriously by all concerned. The OP asked how he would find out why the aircraft turned back and I outlined how and why. You don't have to like the answer if you don't want to but it's what happens.

regards
Stovepipe

tippilot

Hi M,

The reason might have been "commercial". The failure of an item that would have allowed the flight to continue under QRH authority but would have grounded the plane under the MEL would be good enough reason to turn back and change aircraft at DUB with no spare aircraft available at MAN, thus minimum schedule disruption and a tech aircraft grounded away from a major engineering base.

cml387

Stovepipe wrote: »

@inga and CML, I have outlined exactly what happens when an "air turnback" happens. The Captain doesn't make a turnback decision lightly and will be quizzed by his Company, which is why he files a report on the event. These turnbacks are treated very seriously by all concerned. The OP asked how he would find out why the aircraft turned back and I outlined how and why. You don't have to like the answer if you don't want to but it's what happens.

regards
Stovepipe

sorry,I didn't doubt your reply (in fact I agree) I was just curious about your username.


Oh sorry,I see the confusion, No, the reference to off topic was my question about your username.

jmkennedyie

Some archives of ATCs are available online...not sure about Dublin...might give you a clue?