Passengers and crew safe following Aer Arann incident

THERE were no injuries sustained in an incident at Shannon on Sunday morning, in which an Aer Arann plane experienced a suspected failure of its nose wheel landing gear and veered off the runway.
While emergency services were summoned to the airport all of the 21 passengers and four crew disembarked safely. They were assessed by medical personnel at the airport terminal but no injuries were reported.
All operations at the airport were suspended until 4pm on Sunday evening.
In a statement following the incident, Aer Arann said it would not comment on the cause of the difficulty. “Aer Arann cannot speculate as to the cause of the incident and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and Air Accident Investigation Unit branch of the Department of Transport have been informed.”
It stated that the plane was on its second approach. “The aircraft departed Manchester Airport at 8.50am and was due to arrive in Shannon Airport at 10.15am. As the aircraft landed on its second approach at approximately 10.30am, it experienced a suspected failure of the nose wheel landing gear and veered off the runway onto the grass. The emergency services at Shannon Airport were activated.
“There were 21 passengers and four crew members on board. All passengers and crew safely disembarked the aircraft and no injuries have been reported.”
Shannon Airport issued a statement on Sunday afternoon confirming an investigation would be taking place. “All 21 passengers and four crew were safely disembarked and were medically assessed in the airport terminal on arrival. There are no injuries reported. An air accident investigation unit will carry out an examination of the scene this afternoon.”
Andrew Kelly, director of corporate affairs with Aer Arann told The Clare Champion on Monday that the plane was being kept in a hangar in Shannon pending repairs.
Mr Kelly said that replacement aircraft had been brought to Shannon and all services would continue as usual. He expected preliminary findings from the investigation would be available within weeks but that it may be quite some time before final results are available.