Airport ambulance driver launching suit after 'Ryanair plane almost struck her'

[ShamrockF]

Airport ambulance driver launching suit after 'Ryanair plane almost struck her after she was cleared to cross runway' - Independent.ie (http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/airport-ambulance-driver-launching-suit-after-ryanair-plane-almost-struck-her-after-she-was-cleared-to-cross-runway-35112476.html)

What I don't understand is that surely keeping a lookout and maintaining awareness is an essential part of being a pilot. Should this obligation be spread to other airport staff?

What would happen if all pilots who were cleared to land and had to 'go around' sued for emotional distress? The industry would grind to a halt.

Maybe I'm just being insensitive, but I think all ATC instructions should be followed with a dose of common sense.

[DaveReidUK]

Sadly, it's too much to expect a dozy journalist to ask what reason would require an ambulance to cross a live runway in the first place.

[fox niner]

Consider this scenario:

There's a 737 happily taxiing around the airfield. Suddenly an ambulance/fire truck/police car with sirens on appears, and is speeding because of some incident. The plane and the vehicle with blue flashing lights cross each other's path.

Who do you think has the right of way?

........correct. The airplane.

[DaveReidUK]

If you have a 737 bearing down on you at over 100 kts, then the question of who has right of way is kind of academic. :O

[Hotel Tango]

Oh dear, why does the cynic in me think she's trying to make a quick buck?!

[Brigantee]

I dont think 100 kts is normally the sort of rate aircraft taxi at dave ..

[DirtyProp]

Mr Gallagher, who appeared with Anderson & Gallagher solicitors for Ms O’Neill, said she had continued working that day but two months later had developed psychological injuries, which included suffering flashbacks of the incident.

Psychological injuries??
I'm sure they have nothing to do with monetary compensation, right?

PS: Hotel Tango, you beat me to it.

[Chesty Morgan]

I dont think 100 kts is normally the sort of rate aircraft taxi at dave ..
It is Ryanair...!

[Council Van]

It appears that the aircraft was taking off She had been about to cross a runway when she saw the plane coming ahead of her and about to take off.

which was travelling at more than 200km per hour

The lady concerned was apparently paying attention, looking out and made the correct decision to stop. Is that a reason enough to end up suffering from stress and seek compensation?

If it is then I am jumping on that band wagons.Taxying out at Manchester in the summer a foreign aircraft took a wrong turn. Fortunately my Captain and I noticed in time to be able to stop and give way. If we had not we could have collided head on. I am stressed and traumatised, I will have to sue the company who owned the aircraft which took a wrong turn.:ok:

[DaveReidUK]

I dont think 100 kts is normally the sort of rate aircraft taxi at dave ..

No, but it's helpful to be at least that fast when you're in the process of taking off. :O

[zero1]

Under the Air Navigation order and other laws and regulations, aircraft have the right of way on an airport.

I very much doubt she will have much of a case, unless she can prove the ground crew, ATC or aircrew made a deliberate attempt to hit her...

[RoyHudd]

Pathetic. Utterly pathetic. What a disgrace to ambulance drivers this woman is/was.

[paully]

This must give a whole new meaning to Ambulance chasers !!

[PAXboy]

So a person whose daily life involves pulling people out of car prangs and people knocked down in the street; drug addicts, suicides and all the rest - is perturbed by seeing an aircraft taking off on a runway when she is crossing a runway at an airport?

Nice try.

[ExDubai]

Oh dear, why does the cynic in me think she's trying to make a quick buck?!
Because you are the black sheep in a herd of white lambs ;)

[Una Due Tfc]

Does this mean I can sue anyone who busts a level and sets off the STCA?

[bloom]

She had been about to cross a runway when she saw the plane coming ahead of her and about to take off.

O’Neill, of Beaverstown Orchard, Donabate, Co Dublin, said she felt the plane had been only meters away from her and if she had not stopped the ambulance, she would have hit the aircraft.


Sounds like she admitted culpability

[A and C]

Are we sure she was crossing a runway ? Today's sloppy journalists seem to think that any part of an airport the "runway"

[Chu Chu]

She seems to be saying she was cleared to cross a runway that had traffic on it. Presumably that shouldn't have happened. Of course, it may well not have . . .

[jaysky]

My thoughts are with the Ryanair crew who presumably choked as the non-sequitur of collecting an ambulance on the TO roll flashed through their minds.

Interested to know if the ambulance driver was the only one to put this one in the/a report.

[cattletruck]

It's psychosomatic, after a deep phycological analysis we will probably learn that she was once a passenger on a Ryanair flight. The thought of dying so cheaply probably triggered it.

[fokker1000]

I agree. Pathetic.
What Airport, what taxiway, what RWY and what weather conditions.. And no, I'm not a lawyer or an ambulance chaser..

[YorkshireTyke]

She should be prosecuted for wasting the Court's time.

If you're on an airport you should expect aeroplanes, does she ignore all traffic on the road just because she has a flashing light and a bell operating ? Sure she has the right of way, but ..... "She was right, dead right, as she drove along, but she'd be less dead if she'd been more wrong" ( Anon. )

[Bigscotdaddy]

Some people haven't read the report. She appears to have been cleared to cross the runway by ATC in error, as the Ryanair a/c was clearly on it's t/off roll. They maybe thought she was so far away from the intersection that the a/c would have been well past by the time she got there. It's Dublin! I have many interesting memories of flying there in the past. What always tickled me was when the Controller cleared you for take off, then added "Good luck!"

[Ian Burgess-Barber]

It's not just Dublin - it's Ireland
Rule one : On the runway or on the road - EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED!

"Good Luck" -you will need it!

[DaveReidUK]

Some people haven't read the reportWell we wouldn't want the facts to get in the way of a good story.

[Ian Burgess-Barber]

Sir Robert Peel who formed the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1814, and then the Met.in London (1829), said on his return from Ireland - "there is no appetite for the truth in Ireland" - nothing has changed - the truth is regarded as a matter of opinion here -any fairy story is preferred to the facts. Sometimes it's fun, more often it's the ongoing tragedy.

[Sober Lark]

In 1992 about 16,500 army defence force took claims for noise induced hearing loss from firearms training and received €300 million in compensation. You join the army, fire a few rounds and get compensation for something that is difficult to prove?


An ambulance driver and a solicitor, you see it's all part of the Pan-Pan theatre here.


So next time you land here, remember to play your cards right and make friends with a solicitor of course.

[ShamrockF]

I once worked at a small private airport, and used sit in with ground ops as we'd cross the runway for various errands. It was standard procedure to hold short of the runway, look up and down and make sure nothing was taking off or landing at the same time.

I can only imagine Dublin airport would have the same procedures, and it must be one of the first thing they teach the new employees... "eh keep an eye out for the planes there".

[Teevee]

Of course if she'd asked for and been granted clearance to cross the runway because someone had been reported as having a cardiac arrest in the terminal that'd be just a 'various' errand wouldn't it?

[RAT 5]

Of course if she'd asked for and been granted clearance to cross the runway because someone had been reported as having a cardiac arrest in the terminal that'd be just a 'various' errand wouldn't it?

"Passenger dies of heart attack in terminal while waiting for delayed ambulance whose driver had heart attack after nearly being hit by a/c."

Lawyers' field day.

[DaveReidUK]

I can only imagine Dublin airport would have the same procedures, and it must be one of the first thing they teach the new employees... "eh keep an eye out for the planes there".

Would that be before or after they are taught "Trust ATC, their job is to know where all the aircraft are" ?

[Fergus Kavanagh]

Was there no serious incident report made about this.

Surely if she was cleared to cross the runway while an aircraft was on the takeoff roll, an incident report must have been made to the authorities.

If not, why not?

Some of the responses on here are dumber than the journos.
Are you guys really pilots??

I'm not.

[Ian W]

When handling guns you learn that for safety you always treat them as loaded - there is no such thing as an unloaded weapon.

Similarly, when working on or around airports you should always treat every runway (that is in both directions) as if there is an aircraft using it - there is no such thing as an inactive runway. ALWAYS look both ways crossing any runway even if you have clearance to cross.

[Teevee]

And I believe from my ambulance driver friends that when they get a call they always treat it as critical until proved otherwise. I believe she must have looked otherwise wouldn't have stopped. But when you are totally focussed on getting to the patient ASAP to possibly save a life AND have clearance to cross the runway I am guessing a 'leisurely' drive wasn't happening.

[PAXboy]

Whilst seeing an a/c rolling towards you would be a nasty moment, an ambulance can brake or speed up considerably faster than the a/c. The vehicle driver could have decided to stop, or accelerate across the runway with the same mental speed as they make when approaching an intersection with red lights.

Even when crossing green lights - when running under blues and siren - you have to expect that someone will not see/hear you and approach you from your blind side. For example, if they are jumping a light towards your intended path. This is all part of the Day 1 training, so (as the situation is reported here) I have my doubts as a runway intersection has considerably better sight lines than when entering (say, Hyde Park Corner or Marble Arch in London - both junctions have 5 roads of double lanes, meeting around a large circle with a lump of stone in the middle to block your view.

When there is one taxiway and one runway and two vehicles and no visual obstruction? (A nephew of mine has been driving amublances under blue lights for four years.)

[Nelson PK]

Case settled out of court:


The Irish Aviation Authority had entered a full defence to Ms O’Neill’s claim, denying liability. It claimed that although there had been an error on the part of air traffic control, the plane had been 86m away from Ms O’Neill when she had stopped her ambulance. It also claimed her injuries were caused by her own imagining what might have happened had she hit the plane.


Today Mr Gallagher, who appeared with Anderson & Gallagher solicitors for Ms O’Neill, said that following talks between the parties, her claim had settled. Judge Groarke struck out the case and made no order regarding legal costs.
Source (http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/ambulance-worker-almost-collided-with-ryanair-plane-on-runway-at-dublin-airport-35121222.html).

[RAT 5]

ATC vector an a/c i such a way that an RA is generated. Pilots sue ATC. It hasn't happened yet...............? Please don't tell the pax.

[Wander00]

Hope they did not pay her much