The Department of Transport has confirmed it has begun an investigation into an incident on a Ryanair plane as it tried to land in Rome last September.
The Department's Air Accident Investigation Unit will investigate claims the pilot of the Boeing 737 suffered a breakdown as he was landing the plane which was en route from Dusseldorf to Rome's Campino airport.
The co-pilot had to take over the controls. It later emerged that the pilot had recently buried one of his children.
In a statement, the Department said the Italian Air Accident Investigation Unit will decide on Monday if they will lead the investigation. Should they decide to do so, Irish authorities will assist them.
A separate inquiry is being carried out by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), which requested a full report from Ryanair following the incident. This report was received earlier this week.
"The IAA regulatory investigation will cover a larger scope than the Ryanair internal investigation analysis to ensure that correct safety procedures were followed," the IAA said in a statement. "The findings of the IAA investigation will be made known to Ryanair and the industry as a whole."
The Department said any investigation carried out by its Investigation Unit will be separate from the IAA's probe.
Ryanair said tonight it fully informed the IAA of the incident when it occurred.
A company statement added: "A detailed internal investigation was undertaken (by Ryanair) and the findings and recommendations that were implemented were seen and approved by the IAA.
"Ryanair will be more than happy to assist the Italian and/or the Irish authorities with any investigation they might wish to conduct, and are confident that Ryanair's findings and recommendations will be vindicated."