Passengers characterised their Sunday morning journey from Portugal as a tense experience due to consistent failures in landing at Dublin Airport resulting from Storm Ashley. This led to two unfortunate detours to English airfields. A medical emergency occurred aboard the 9.35 am Ryanair service from Faro, Portugal during its second touchdown attempt at Dublin Airport, planned for midday. Following this, a detour was made to Manchester Airport.
The flight patrons had to wait on the aircraft at Manchester before departing around 5 pm, only to fail another landing attempt at Dublin because of strong winds, leading to a return journey to England. On the second diversion, the destination was Birmingham Airport, where they arrived approximately at 7.30 pm.
By this time, Michael O’Brien (67), who lives in Ballyogan, Dublin, mentioned that roughly a third of the passengers opted to disembark and take up overnight accommodation in Birmingham. He also reported that the passengers were informed they wouldn’t get any expenses. He recalled a harsh scene, saying, “There are infants present on the aircraft. The supplies on board were limited with no food, no water and no toilet paper.”
Another traveller, 29-year-old Galway resident, Darren Hennessy, reported that the second landing attempt was distressing, emphasising it was an unsound feeling. According to him, the airplane’s wheels never made contact with the landing strip. Recalling their ordeal, he explained, “The aircraft was staggering all around.”
“Hopefully, we’ll succeed this time,” voiced a hopeful O’Brien.
The recurring attempts finally ended when the aircraft made a successful landing at Dublin Airport at 11.45 pm on Sunday night.