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MULTI-talented Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary tried his hand at journalism yesterday when he called the Aer Rianta Press Office in Dublin Airport pretending to be an Evening Herald reporter.


The colourful airline chief using the name of reporter Shane Hickey wanted to find out what the airport authority had told the newspaper about an incident involving one of his planes.


Using Mr Hickey's name, the chief executive of the budget airline tried to wrangle the details from a bemused press officer who had earlier spoken to the reporter about a Ryanair jet which had to return to Dublin after an oil leak.


But Aer Rianta officials familiar with the real Mr Hickey became suspicious when they did not recognise the strange voice, coupled with the fact that the Ryanair main telephone number flashed up on their caller ID telephone.


The official at Aer Rianta knew Mr Hickey and put it to Mr O'Leary that he was not a member of the press and was not Shane Hickey and told the imposter that the Ryanair number was on their telephone screen.


Last night Aer Rianta confirmed that Mr O'Leary eventually admitted who he was, and the conversation ended soon after.


Aer Rianta said that Mr O'Leary had called the office at around 10am, using the name Shane Hickey, and asked that the press officer repeat information they had given to the reporter earlier that day.


However last night Mr O'Leary said he would not confirm if the incident took place.


He suggested that the press office had imagined he had telephoned that morning to see what information staff had relayed to the reporter.


"No, I think that whatever they're smoking they should give it up," he said.


"I ring Aer Rianta about six times a day, I'm not commenting on that. No, I'm not saying whether I did ring or not."


When told that Aer Rianta had confirmed the story, Mr O'Leary said; "well, there you go".


During the incident involving a Ryanair plane a flight to Glasgow was forced to return to Dublin Airport after developing an oil leak.


None of the 123 passengers and five crew aboard flight FR-772 was hurt in the incident.


The oil leak was the second safety scare on Ryanair planes this week after two tyres on one of their aircraft burst on landing at Manchester Airport on Wednesday.


However one irate customer accused the airline of not telling people what was happening during the incident, and said that people's fears were not addressed by the air crew.


Mr O'Leary said these claims were "nonsense".

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