Passengers travelling from England to Shannon on Wednesday afternoon found themselves over 520 kms away in Scotland after their flight was unable to land due to high winds.
Ryanair flight FR-109 departed Stansted Airport at around 3.40pm and was due to arrive in Shannon at 5.00pm. An hour after leaving Stanstead, while on approach to Shannon, the crew was advised that there were strong winds at the airport.
The flight entered a holding pattern over East Clare for about 30 minutes before the crew decided to divert to an alternate airport. It’s understood that the crew first indicated they wished to divert to Belfast however they later opted to divert to Edinburgh in Scotland over 500 kms from Shannon.
It’s not clear why the flight didn’t divert to Belfast as originally planned or to Dublin.
The flight landed in Edinburgh at around 6.00pm and according to flight data, spent over an hour on the ground before taking off for Shannon again at 7.07pm.
A Ryanair spokesperson said: “This flight from London Stansted to Shannon diverted to Edinburgh due to high winds at Shannon Airport. The aircraft landed normally and passengers remained on board before taking off for Shannon approximately 40 mins later when conditions had improved.”
The flight finally landed in Shannon shortly after 8.00pm, three hours behind schedule.
Meanwhile, Ryanair flight FR-1865 from Reus, Spain to Shannon also circled for a short time east of the airport before later diverting to Dublin. When that aircraft attempted to return to Shannon from Dublin it was again unable to land and entered a holding pattern for over 90 minutes before diverting to Dublin for a second time.
Ryanair flight 1345 from Lanzarote experienced similar difficulties and had to divert to Dublin also.
Meanwhile, Wednesday afternoon’s Ryanair flight from Shannon Airport to Fuerteventura in the Canary Island (FR-1348) was cancelled.
Ryanair had warned earlier in the day: “Due to strong winds we are expecting possible delays on flights to/from the UK and Ireland today, 12 Apr, 2023. Any affected passengers will be notified as early as possible.
Ryanair advises all passengers to monitor the Ryanair app/website for the latest travel updates. We apologise for any inconvenience caused due to weather which is entirely outside of Ryanair’s control.”