An US-bound executive jet was forced to return to Shannon Airport this afternoon after reporting a technical issue over the North Atlantic.
The Bombardier Global 7500 jet departed Shannon at around 11.50am destined for Seattle in Washington. There were four persons on board.
Around 35 minutes after take off, when the jet was about 250 kilometres northwest of Donegal, the crew issued a Pan-pan radio call reporting a technical problem to air traffic controllers. A Pan-pan call is not as serious as a May-day distress message and is used to indicate an urgency on board but no danger to the passengers or aircraft.
It’s understood that the pilot reported a fuel imbalance indication issue.
The flight turned around and began to route back towards Shannon and entered a holding pattern briefly over Co Limerick before commencing an approach to the airport.
Shannon airport’s fire and rescue service was placed on standby initially at their station but after the pilot indicated they would be making an overweight landing, fire crews later took up positions at designated holding points adjacent to the runway ahead of the jet’s arrival.
The flight landed safely at 1.20pm and was pursued along the runway by airport emergency response vehicles. This was a precautionary measure to ensure the jet’s landing gear hadn’t overheated in the overweight landing.
The jet continued to a parking area where engineers were waiting to investigate the issue.