Ryanair, the Ireland-based low cost airline, will be undergoing an investigation before it may be cleared of charges of noncompliance to safety standards while flying in France.
The airline, which has been reporting flight incidents quite frequently recently, had to make an emergency landing at Valencia, in Spain. European Union rules make it mandatory for commercial aircraft to carry plenty of fuel to cope with a range of emergency events.
On September 18, 2012 a delegation from the Spanish Ministry of Development, led by the Secretary General for Transport, met members of the Irish Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, led by the Secretary General, as well as the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) in Dublin, Ireland, to discuss the incidents that led to the airline emergency stopover. The Irish authorities have assured their Spanish counterparts that in future all operations of the airline will be overseen by the Ireland government members so stop a repeat of the earlier incident.
A statement issued by Irish Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport said, ‘As an example of this increased cooperation it was agreed that the circumstances of a specific incident in Madrid airport on 16th September would be jointly examined by IAA and AESA (the Spanish aviation authority).’
Ryanair has, on its part, issued an invite to the Spanish Ministry members to inspect their operational hub in Dublin to check if the airline has been faulting on the European aviation operating and maintenance standards.
The airline head of communications, Stephen McNamara, said, ‘We welcome this official report into the Valencia procedures on the 26th July last which confirms that all three Ryanair aircraft carried extra fuel and that all three complied fully with EU Ops procedures.
We also welcome this week’s joint statement of the Irish and Spanish Transport Ministries which confirms that Ryanair’s safety standards are on a par with the safest airlines in Europe. We hope that the Fomento will now accept Ryanair’s invitation to inspect our operations in Dublin in order to put an end to the false claims and misinformation in the Spanish media in recent weeks about Ryanair’s outstanding 28 year safety record.’
