This from the Irish Independent:
July 15, 2003
RYANAIR IN EMERGENCY LANDING
AN emergency landing by a Ryanair jet at London's Stansted airport yesterday caused travel chaos for thousands of passengers bound for Ireland and other European destinations yesterday.
As the Boeing 737-200 jet touched down its brakes seized and the aircraft came to a halt in the middle of the airport's sole runway blocking all other flights from taking off orlanding. Last night a spokesman for Stansted airport said they were dealing with thousands of passengers whose travel plans had been severely disrupted but hoped to have operations back to normal this morning.
As a result of the emergency, 16 aircraft were diverted and Ryanair cancelled 15 flights into Stansted.
The trouble happened after the Ryanair jet was diverted to Stansted shortly after taking off from Luton for Dublin when a fire warning on board was noticed by the pilots. The Boeing 737-200 was climbing out of Luton when the pilot announced he was turning back for technical reasons.
Dublin journalist Tom McEnaney who was on board said the aircraft "banked steeply tothe left" just before the pilot told the passengers of his decision.
He added: "There was no panic but it was obvious by the way the plane banked steeply the pilot was in a hurry to get down."
Mr McEnaney described the landing as "very hard" and said the brakes locked as thepilots brought the jet to a halt.
There was no smoke or indication of a fire but fire engines raced to the plane after itlanded.
Last night, a Ryanair spokesman said: "The aircraft was removed from service to undergofull technical inspection by Ryanair engineers."
Passengers were being accommodated on the next available flight or were offered a full refund.
Frank Khan