A Ryanair flight from Italy to Scotland narrowly avoided disaster last Friday. After three attempts to land at two Scottish airports, the flight was forced to land in Manchester, England, with only around six minutes of fuel remaining, the Herald reports. The incident unfolded as Storm Amy battered Scotland with 100mph winds, causing widespread travel chaos. The Boeing 737 flight from Pisa to Glasgow Prestwick, operated by Malta Air for Ryanair as Flight FR3418, first attempted to land at Prestwick but aborted the approach due to severe weather, then entered a holding pattern before a second failed landing attempt.
The crew then diverted to Edinburgh, where poor weather forced a third go-around before they finally headed to Manchester. Sources tell the Aviation Herald that it landed with just 485 pounds of fuel, 220 in the left tank and 265 in the right tank, enough to last five or six minutes. According to European Union safety rules that apply to Ireland-based Ryanair, the plane should have been carrying 30 minutes' worth of fuel, around 2,650 pounds, at that point, the Telegraph reports. The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch is investigating what it calls a "serious incident."
Before the Manchester landing, the flight crew issued a "Squawk 7700," the universal code for emergency situations. At one point, it was the most-tracked flight in the world on FlightRadar24. The flight landed almost two hours after the first landing attempt at Prestwick and passengers were taken to Scotland by bus. Passenger Alexander Marchi tells the Ayr Advertiser that the plane left Pisa late because of the "general strike and protesters invading the tarmac at the airport" and people were worried that they wouldn't make it to Scotland before the storm hit. "Everything was fine until we started our descent. The plane was circling a few times before trying the first time but pulling up almost immediately," he says.
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"The second time it was a very bumpy ride and we almost reached the tarmac, but at the last minute we pulled up very sharply," Marchi says. "We were being buffeted around a lot and jumping. There were a few worried people on the second descent as we could feel the plane was struggling." He says the attempt to land in Edinburgh was just as bad as the second Prestwick attempt. "We realized how bad things had been after seeing the images after finally landing at Manchester with almost no fuel," Marchi says. "There was a lot of relief. People were wanting to get off, and definitely were not up for flying anytime soon, but there was no panic."
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