Thomas Coupling IN response to
Post 76 of yours :
when I fly with Ryan Air
I don't mean to be a pain in the arse and you are not the only one, but please it is
Ryanair not
Ryan Air neither is it
RA their code is
FR. Not important but one of two factually incorrect points in your post.
Add to this the fact that they landed at the wrong airport not so long ago and shortly before that, misidentified the wrong airfield on finals....and now this news report, what is going on?
If you refer to an incident in Derry, Ryanair did not land at the wrong airport, but a sub chartered Airbus from
Eirjet (R.I.P) did. They were an independant airline who flew Airbus' and had nothing to do with Ryanair.
As for the hard landings then yes, I would agree. Our Chief Pilot wrote recently :
The Ryanair incidences of hard landings have reached an unacceptable level to the extent that Ryanair is now in discussion with both the IAA and Boeing on the issue.
While it is accepted that trainee pilots will occasionally misjudge a landing resulting in a “firm” arrival during Line Training it is not acceptable for a Commander to test a relatively inexperienced co-pilot in adverse conditions.
I want to bring your attention to the requirements in this regard in Operations Manual
So it would appear that a problem officially exisits. It is my opinion (As a relatively fresh F/O) that a number of problems contribute to these. In no particular order:
- Lots and Lots of very Green F/Os online in the last year or two. I made an arse of a landing shortly post training and had a Captain take over in the flare. Maybe the hard landings happen to Captains with slower reactions?
- Short runways. We have airfield briefings which state "Caution, approaching 737-800 landing limits." When you have 10,000ft of runway at major airports maybe you can hold off for a while longer to smooth the touchdown. At Carcasonne you bang it on the markers.