A safety investigation has ruled that all four tyres on the main landing gear of a Ryanair plane burst on touchdown at an Italian airport in October 2024.
This was confirmed by a report by the Italian Civil Aviation Safely Investigation Authority, otherwise known as the ANSV, which found that this incident happened after the plane's anti-skid braking system was deactivated following a persistent fault.
This incident happened on the Irish -registered Boeing 737-8200 MAX plane coming from Barcelona, had landed at Milan Bergamo Airport, Italy on 1 October 2024.
The aircraft contained 162 passengers and six crew members, who were all left unharmed, but they had to evacuate from the aircraft, while it was still on the runway.
The report also said that the serious incident emanated from an incorrect sequence of actions which were unintentionally applied by the flight crew, while landing an aircraft with its anti-skid system disabled.
The plane's wheels and braking system were also severely damaged, while the runway also received extensive damage, which had to be resurfaced before flights could resume later that evening.
Other factors included the crew's lack of training on flight simulators for landing an aircraft with an inoperative anti-skid system. It was found that this anti skid system was deactivated the day before the flight following maintenance checks after a warning light had been illuminating repeatedly during a series of flights from Barcelona.
There was also a reported "less than adequate evidence" in aircraft manuals of a clear and timely sequence of the required actions to perform this landing.
Following another maintenance check, this aircraft had been released for flying with the anti skid system still inoperative in the absence of evidence of specific faults.
Another four flights followed before more checks were carried out on the aircraft, which found a failure of a sensor, linked to just one of two anti skid channels.
The anti skid system had been left deactivated after a spare component was unavailable, according to an on duty technician.
There were discrepancies found in the Boeing documentation, especially about whether anti-skid channel "must not" or "should not" be deactivated. The report found that this may also have contributed to the decision to disable an operative anti-skid channel unnecessarily.
Ground crew and pilots were also reportedly correctly planned and prepared the aircraft for landing without the anti skid system, and were aware of the implications of landing without the system in place.
While the aircraft had reached the runway at the correct speed and descent rate, it was found that the pressure which was applied to the brakes before the speed brakes were used, had caused them to lock and led to tyre blowouts.
The report also said that the training programmes provided by Ryanair did not include practical training sessions on a flight simulator for an aircraft with the anti skid system deactivated.
Ryanair also carried out its own internal investigation, and have reduced the maximum repair window for fault rectification from 10 days to just one flight.
They have also made it mandatory for flight crews to contact their duty pilot for an operational briefing on procedures, restrictions, and threats for operating an aircraft with an inoperative disabled.
Three safety recommendations have been issued by the Italian Civil Aviation Safely Investigation Authority to Boeing regarding operation of the aircraft with its anti-skid disabled.
News of this comes just a month after a Ryanair passenger suffered the traumatic ordeal of being partially sucked out of a window while on a flight with the airline from the Greek city of Thessaloniki to Memmingen near Munich.
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