Ryanair aircraft in emergency landing

A Ryanair aircraft was forced to return to Dublin airport after its tail hit the ground on take-off.

The incident has been reported by the airline to the Air Accident Investigation Unit of the Department of Transport.

Passengers on flight FR296 from Dublin to Stansted said the aircraft shuddered as it took off and was then forced to turn back and make a very steep landing.

Emergency fire crews were on hand at the airport as it returned to base just minutes after taking off on Monday afternoon.

The pilot told passengers that the aircraft had been involved in a tailstrike, an incident in which the tail of the aircraft scrapes along the ground because the aircraft has taken off too steeply.

Passenger John Mooney said: "There was a loud bang when we took off. I'm not the nervous type, but there were a lot of people really frightened."

Another passenger, Alan Bray, recalled: "I was asleep in my seat during take-off, but the noise of the tail scrape was such that it made me jump up in the seat."

He added: "We continued out over five minutes, banked quite sharply and made a landing . . . When we hit the runway, it was such a hard touchdown, the plane shook."

Ryanair confirmed that the incident had taken place and said the aircraft had landed as a "precautionary measure". It was inspected and cleared for take-off three hours later. "Ryanair regrets this delay, however, the safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is always our number-one priority," it said in a statement.