Shannon Airport saw a massive increase in aircraft diversions in 2015 with 319 planes making unscheduled landings.
While the majority of diversions related to weather issues at other airports, Shannon also experienced a rise in emergency diversions where aircraft suffered technical issues or passengers fell ill.
In 2014, the mid west airport saw an almost doubling of medical emergencies handling a total of 22 incidents where aircraft were forced to divert to seek urgent medical attention.
Last year, the number of medical diversions increased further to 27, including one incident where a passenger was pronounced dead after a flight landed.
The 64-year-old woman died on board a British Airways flight Las Vegas to London that diverted to Shannon in June despite the best efforts fo cabin crew members resuscitate her.
Shannon Airport’s Fire and Rescue Service responded to a total of 49 incidents last year compared to 37 in 2014.
There were 7 ‘declared aircraft emergencies’ while 11 flights diverted with technical issues. Fire crews were also placed on ‘local standby’ on four occasions for aircraft that diverted but didn’t declare an emergency.
Incidents included reports of fumes on board; possible fires in cargo holds and a 79-year-old woman whose behaviour forced a crew to land and have her arrested.
The airport also saw a massive three-fold rise in unscheduled landings because of weather, airport closures or flight crews being “out of hours.” There were 270 such incidents last year compared to just 92 in 2014.
So far this year, there have been two diversions to Shannon as a result of security issues including a bomb threat.
On January 24th, a Turkish Airlines flight from the US to Istanbul made an emergency landing at Shannon after a note with the word ‘bomb’ on it was found on board.
On New Years Day, a 41-year-old woman was arrested at Shannon after the crew of Jet2.com flight LS-518 decided to divert and have her removed from the aircraft.
At almost 3.2kms in length, Shannon’s runway is the longest in Ireland while the airport is also the designated emergency landing site for aircraft that get into difficulty.
Shannon Airport Director of Operations Niall Maloney said: “Shannon has an excellent record of remaining operational during the most inclement weather conditions, often when other airports here have to close.
The number of diversions we get from other airports here in Ireland and, indeed, some UK airports from time to time, as well as emergencies over the Atlantic, says a lot about our preparedness and capacity to handle all types of eventualities and at short notice,” Mr Maloney added.
Meanwhile, Dublin Airport’s emergency crews is responded to 62 incidents in 2015 an increase of 10 on the previous year. A breakdown of the incident types has not been made available by Dublin Airport.
Cork Airport accepted just one mechanical or operational diversion in 2015 as well as 36 unscheduled landings as a result of weather at other airports.