A flight from Shannon to Spain was forced to return to the airport this evening after suffering a suspected lightning strike off the south coast of Ireland.
Ryanair flight FR2848 to Malaga, Spain, departed Shannon at 7.05pm. About 20 minutes after take off, when the flight was around 100 kilometres south of Cork, the crew opted to turn around and return to Shannon. It’s understood the flight suffered a lightning strike.
The flight crew advised air traffic controllers that they feared their jet may have suffered a lightning strike and they were returning to Shannon to have it investigated.
The crew told controllers that they wished to have the right side engine checked on arrival for any evidence of fire.
The Boeing 737-8200 Max jet made a U-turn and routed back to Shannon. The flight landed safely back at Shannon at 7.55pm.
Airport fire crews were standing by to meet the aircraft on arrival as a precaution while engineers were also waiting to inspect the jet.
The flight continued its journey to Malaga at around 9.15pm.
