THE FAILURE of a Ryanair pilot and crew to stop and investigate an incident in which their jet clipped the rear of another aircraft, resulted from deficiencies in communication between flight crew personnel, an investigation has found.
A report on the ground collision at Barcelona airport in April 2011 has concluded that the incident occurred because the Ryanair crew misjudged the distance between their aircraft and a stationary jet.
Consequently, the right winglet of the Ryanair Boeing 737-800 (B737) hit the rear of an American Airlines Boeing 767-300 (B767) which was about to depart for New York.
Despite a passenger reporting the collision to a flight attendant, the captain “ignored” the information, believing that only one passenger had made the claim.
The Ryanair crew believed they had not made contact with the other aircraft while the American Airlines crew reported nothing unusual.
It was only after the Ryanair flight arrived safely in Ibiza and the damage was detected, that American Airlines was notified of the collision. After arriving in New York, the American Airlines jet was taken out of service when damage to the horizontal stabiliser was detected.
Spain’s Comision de Investigacion de Accidentes e Incidentes de Aviacion Civil investigated the incident and has completed its final report.
The commission found: “The incident resulted from the crew of the Ryanair B737’s misjudging of the distances as it passed behind the B767.” The report adds: “Several passengers saw the collision and reported it to the flight attendants. The flight attendants reported the collision to the flight crew, but did so ineffectively.
“The B737 [Ryanair] flight crew ignored the information, believing that only one passenger had reported the collision.
“Deficiencies in the communications between the cabin and flight crews on the B737 resulted in the collision going unnoticed and in both aircraft continuing with their flights without an assessment of the damage produced,” according to investigators.
The captain of the Ryanair jet told investigators that her decision to continue with the flight would “probably have been different if she had known that several passengers had reported contact”.
The report recommended that Ryanair reassess those aspects of its training programme involving flight and cabin crew communications and address any deficiencies.
Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara has confirmed: “Ryanair accepted the findings of this report and immediately implemented its recommendation.”
The investigation also found that allowing an aircraft with a long fuselage, such as the American Airlines B767-300, to hold where it did contributed to the incident.
The report recommended that Aena, the Spanish authority responsible for airports, reassess limitations applicable to specific taxiways and holding points at Barcelona airport.