A Ryanair plane carrying 128 passengers made an "uncontrolled" taxiway departure when the captain braked too late after landing, an investigation has found.
It concluded that the captain had not attained a safe taxi speed when she attempted to vacate the runway at Charleroi Airport, near Brussels.
After leaving the runway, the aircraft's nosewheel and right main landing gear departed the paved surface and ended up on grass. No-one was injured and passengers disembarked in the normal fashion, but the airport was closed for two hours after the incident, on November 29th, 2002. The plane had been flown from Dublin by its 21-year-old male first officer. After landing at Charleroi, he handed over control to the 42-year-old female captain.
The investigation was carried out by the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) after consultation with the Belgian authorities. "The late use of an inappropriate braking technique, that failed to achieve a safe taxi speed, led to the uncontrolled departure of the aircraft from the taxiway on to the grassy area," the investigation concluded. The flight had departed Dublin at 10.10 a.m. and was uneventful, concluding in a normal landing at 11.40 a.m. The airport authorities said the runway was wet at the time.
