Ryanair Flight 296
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Ryanair Flight 296 is a flight between Dublin International Airport and London Stansted Airport, Essex. The flight was marred by an incident on February 27, 2002 when an engine caught fire after landing at London Stansted Airport, causing the evacuation of the aircraft. An inquiry by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) made several recommendations to the Civil Aviation Authority on how to better handle similar incidents in the future.
Flight 296 left Dublin at around 4.00 pm, reaching London Stansted Airport at 5.15 pm. Upon landing, airport crew noticed smoke pouring from engine number two of the Boeing 737-800 jet, EI-CSA, used by Ryanair for this flight. Fire services at Stansted rushed to the scene and the pilot was ordered to evacuate the aircraft.
Two members of the Ryanair aircrew initially struggled to open the emergency doors, before being successfully assisted by other crew members. The investigation by the AAIB found that during training, it was not made clear to the aircrew that doors are more difficult to open in an emergency due to the need to activate the air chutes. However, the aircraft was fully evacuated in 90 seconds.
Six passengers initially evacuated onto the wing of the aircraft where the engine fire was raging. Firefighters ordered the passengers back onto the aircraft to use other emergency exits. There were no injuries as a result of the incident.
Media reports on the investigation also focused on other areas of Ryanair's training methods which include: aircrew training taking place in Eastern European countries; aircrew having to pay for their own training (which was stated to cost in the region of £1,400); and aircrew having to pay for their own uniforms and airport security passes. These areas were not examined by the AAIB, as some other airlines also follow these practices.
