An investigation is underway after a passenger plane’s landing gear detached on takeoff at a Scottish airport.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) is probing the incident, which involved the plane’s nosewheel coming off as it took to the sky during a routine flight from Edinburgh Airport last year.
The Aer Lingus jet was departing on a flight between Scotland and Belfast when the nosewheel detached.
It has not been confirmed how the aircraft completed its flight, or who was onboard, but there were no problems reported in Northern Ireland at the time.
The ATR 72-600 plane under investigation is a twin-propeller aircraft deployed on regional flights around the UK.
The plane can carry up to 78 passengers and is a popular choice for airlines around the world flying short-haul routes.
The aircraft involved in the incident is currently back in service, flying routes between Edinburgh, Belfast, Southampton and Manchester.
The AAIB has listed the incident, which happened in October 2023, as “under investigation”.
READ MORE: Air accidents body investigating light plane crash near Prestwick
READ MORE: Microlight crash victim ‘might have survived’ if shoulder harness worn
A spokeswoman for Aer Lingus said: "As this situation is under investigation, we cannot provide further detail at this time.”
Aer Lingus is currently in the middle of an industrial dispute, with pilots being asked to accept a 17.75% pay increase in a ballot, following a recommendation by their representative body.
It comes after a work-to-rule, which began at the end of June, resulted in the airline cancelling hundreds of flights.
The 17.75% figure was recommended by the Irish Labour Court following engagement with Aer Lingus and the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association (Ialpa).
Ialpa leadership sought clarifications from the Labour Court over the non-binding recommendation and, following consideration of the terms, recommended that its membership accept them.
The pilot body will move immediately to suspend its ongoing work-to-rule action, in place since June 26, pending the outcome of a ballot.
The union will hold a series of engagements with members before a ballot on the terms of the Labour Court recommendation in the coming week.
Ialpa president Mark Tighe described the pay increase provided for in the recommendation as a significant win for pilots.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel