Update:
Friday 11.30am – The jet continued to Oslo this morning after completing a test flight.
Earlier: A passenger jet was forced to return to Shannon Airport yesterday after the crew reported a technical issue soon after departure.
The Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) jet was returning to Oslo in Norway having undergone maintenance at Shannon so there were no passengers and just a crew of two on board. The Boeing 737-700 aircraft arrived in Shannon early last month.
The aircraft departed Shannon for Oslo shortly before 4.00pm yesterday as flight SK-9270. However as the crew were climbing out over the Midlands, they contacted air traffic controllers to notify them of a problem.
The crew reported an issue with the aircraft’s flaps which they could not fully retract. The pilot told controllers they would be unable to continue to Oslo and requested clearance to return to the airport.
The pilot also confirmed that they would be unable to extend their flaps and would have to make a ‘flapless landing’.
While the flight crew did not declare an emergency, the airport’s fire and rescue service was alerted and placed on local standby at their station as a precaution.
The crew turned around over Lough Ree and requested a few minutes to go through their checklists before routing back to Shannon. The flight landed safely at 4.45pm and returned to a maintenance hangar to have the problem investigated.
Yesterdays was the fourth unscheduled landing at Shannon so far this year. Two of the previous incidents were medical emergencies while one involved a transatlantic jet on which the toilets had malfunctioned forcing it to divert to Shannon.