No matter what my feelings about Ryanair may be, air travel is actually by far one of the most safe forms of transport. I have had one 'event' ever, which is when on an Air Mekong internal flight in Viet Nam the stewardess came out calmly and made an announcement in Vietnamese and English (only two of us on the flight were not Vietnamese). It appeared the pilot had thought his co-pilot was in the galley having some tea and took off without him. The stewardess wanted to know if people wanted to return to Ha Noi immediately. None of us did, so the flight was completed. No doubt pilot and co-pilot got a rollicking but no harm was done. I feel secure in planes and no doubt Ryanair is no worse or better than any other carrier. It doesn't mean I would miss them if they left Bergerac.
Ian, I'd probably advise people not to fly, drive, or ride behind me on my bike, lol.
So what you're really saying, Zoe, is don't fly with you? :-)
In general air travel is very safe, thankfully.
No, it was back in 2006, july. The sept 08 tailstrike was plastered all over the news, and aviation sites. I think I was more pissed off after that, actually, that there was still no good out of Ryaniar. It seemed similar, the story goes that the captain hands control to the first officer, while he goes through a checklist, but, in both cases, the first officer, instead of levelling off, continues to climb, and pressurize the cabin.
Well, that's a conversation for another day... facebook removing political posts, or protest pictures, as well as pro breastfeeding pages, while leaving up "dead baby jokes", and other similar disgusting pages.
The arrivals hall, we were given "vouchers" for tea, or coffee... to compensate any of us who hadn't had a nervous breakdown, and were still lively enough to have a go, but, from that point on, there were no ryanair people in sight, to deal with us, At that point I left it, because a group of people huddled together saying "oh, how terrible", and "I thoguht it was the end" together was not going to get a result. I went to check in, found a ryanair looking person, but, fair enough, she had only just come on duty, and didn't even know what I was talking about, and "could not find" a manager, or someone in a position to deal with me. she gave me a phone number, and an e- mail address, and all I got from them was that everything was conducted as normal that day, ryanair thanks me for my custom.
If Ryanair ceased their use of Carcassonne, I would be affected, but only marginally because I have other cost effective options.
My house in Peyriac-Minervois is just about 20 minutes from the airport, the car hire works well for me if I'm only visiting for a week, and Carcassonne is a better option than Beziers, both in terms of comfort and convenience at the France end.
But I live in Manchester, and the new Beziers flights are much more convenient at this end. Liverpool is an hours coach away.
However, if I'm coming over for an extended stay, 2 weeks to a number of months, I drive via Portsmouth to Caen or Cherbourg with Brittany Ferries which is altogether more pleasant.
So I have options and I use them.
Ryanair has made the effective use of my house possible, for which I am grateful, and even though I find some of their more exploitative things annoying, I can avoid most of them.
This flight wasnt in September 2008 was it?
Fair enough. I doubt facebook disappeared it....they seem alarmingly disinclined to disappear the most offensive stuff....think I would have been screaming blue murder in the arrivals!
They do what all companies do.... if you kick up enough fuss, they give you credit with which to buy flights. Ryanair gave us 80 euro's worth. Virgin blue gave 500 USD worth. We flew with neither company ever again.
I'd sooner re-live flying through hailstones in a turboprop again than get on what might even seem like ideal conditions on a ryanair flight.
what is alarming, Barbara, is, most tailstrikes, or smoke in cabin incidents are reported, and easily searched on the internet.
while I have found reference to the smoke in cabin incident, the tailstrike seems to have went unreported, undocumented, anywhere.In short, it didn't happen. There was a group on facebook, of passengers, and crew, trying to mobilise to get an answer from Ryanair, but the group was "disappeared" by facebook, or perhaps by the person who creeated it. Either way, that left me with the solid decision never to fly with them again.
whether the planes are leased, or not, repairs should be carried out correctly. How sure are we that speed tape was used.... After all, the tape did come off, in flight.
I'm not going to waste my fingers on media bias, yes it happens, but facts are facts, and the story is the story... the tape came off. The plane was grounded because of this.
Sounds horrific....would have thought you all had grounds to sue...life endangerment...we felt the same with the Air Canada flight....a 10 hour flight with our 11 month old and we were unable to use a bassinet as the plane was buffeting all over the place.....had to stay strapped in for the entire flight. Several times passengers going to the loo fell over as did many cabin staff. Did not fly again for a good six months after that! We had left despite a hurricane in the area....they thought it was veering off....but turned and came back.
Well that is alarming Zoe.
However I am sure that you will find....MAYBE I am wrong ...that most airtlines
take the same risks?
Anyone know?
All these tragic accidents over the last few years....ANY of them Ryanair.
Yes for me to flying is boreing.
The waiting around at the airport and sitting still for more than an hour with the
asperation of an inflight snack of a plastic samwhiche for 5/6 suros or in the posher
departments/flights a tray of small tragerdies cooked for 500 hundred years and then
reheated in a massive-wave...bouncy transparent packets of something which looks like cheese....
Prepared, of course by one of the Roux brothers when they have free time.
they say Ryanair lease their planes and do not carry out the maintenance themselves...also speed tape a normal component and regularly used in planes...not the same as duct tape.....certain Newspapers have their own agendas and their own connections with other businesses which can be big business when you are talking about advertising costs... so it can be to their advantage to put a slant on a business they dont like. O'Leary has never played the game with the press...and is not popular with them.
Well, John, those Blyton wannabes were writing in the newspapers, and there were pictures to go with it... give me a sec.
http://gizmodo.com/5853042/airplane-caught-in-duct+taped-window-shocker
http://www.terminalu.com/travel-news/duct-taped-ryanair-cockpit-window-comes-loose-mid-air/18358/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/ryanair-flight-aborted-af_n_1028202.html
Should I go on??
People give Ryanair a hard time but I think they are brilliant as certainly, to go to a place such as Bezier in the South France, life would suddenly get much harder for getting to and from the UK. Ryanair have some brilliant routes and the locations of airports away from main cities is actually brilliant for location.
It's not just Ryanair, when we lived in Australia/New Zealand, we encountered virgin-blue, similar stuff. Have flown through storms with Quantas, honestly, it didn't even register that there could be a danger, we chose virgin blue because well, it was Richard Branson, he wasn't going to run a cowboy outfit, now was he???.We thought that would be better than Air Vanuatu, the flagship of a small Pacific Island. We very quickly ditched virgin blue for Air Vanuatu when we saw how well the Ni-Van pilots handled their ATRs.
How wrong we were.lol
The first time we flew, shortly after take off, the cabin filled with smoke. Protocol is to return, land, and get to the bottom of the issue. Captain continued to destination, and before landing, we were informed that "due to mechanical problems", the landing may be "unusual". on the final turn, looking onto the runway, we saw fire engines zipping along the runways below. Plane veered off the runway on landing, didn't burst into flames, or smash into a building, but continuing to the destination when a problem presents itself just after take-off is downright stupid, and dangerous.
Second flight with ryanair, only a couple of months later.... tailstrike on take-off. Once again, pilots are urged to turn around, land the plane, and check the plane over for possible damage, but, no, once again, the pilot continued to ascend, and took up his route, and decided to continue on to the destination.Despite the horror of the passengers, the cabin crew set about their sales pitch, although rather shakily. A loud bang accompanied with what I can only describe as a "whoosh" of air, and we were all grasping at the dangling masks above our heads. It got cold in there. Very cold. We started to descend, and I actually was naive enough to think we were going to land in the UK, after all, we were over Cornwall, or thereabouts. The captain had other ideas, and came on the PA system, and announced that the plane was stable, and now flying at a reduced altitude "for your comfort"(it was possibly close to freezing in there), and that we were still expected to make Shannon Airport on schedule.
I have no problem with idiots having jobs, none at all, but when that job comes with the responsibility of other peoples' lives, surely someone with an IQ a little higher than soft butter should be chosen for the position.
Thats the trouble Zoe reading stories, most were written by Enid Blyton wanabes as ex RAF engineer i cannot believe a pilot would sticky tape a windscreen nor even taxi out he would take one look and tell them on their bike and be within his rights Ryanair's safety record says it all the guy is in business to make money giving a decent service, working on any part of an aircraft if a tiny pin is dropped it has to be found and accounted for i personely have seen the damage a tiny paper clip can do to an RB211 its amazing luckily it occurred on the test bed at RR Derby it is now or was used as an example and is/was on prominent display in the workshop as a constant reminder i neither praise or condemn Ryonair flying to me is boring but anyone who willingly pays over the odds unnecessarily must have a very understanding bank or lots of money
If i needed to get back to the uk fast then Ryanair is a must Carcassonne Beziers to liverpool, East Mid or Manchester 2 hours from 30€ to 100€ but given the choice i will drive
and everyone could puff away on their fags to their hearts content!