Ryanair pilot decides to shorten runway and was forced to turn back.

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

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Tobi Hughes

23 Responses

    1. A pilot is a pilot,everyone who regularly visits Madeira knows the airport is a tricky one,so surely the pilots have the training for that.I remember on our first visit in 1981 when the runway was too short to take off with a full load of fuel and we hoped over to Porto Santo filled up and went in our jolly way.Also there was that crashed aircraft on the rocks at the end of the runway that didn’t make it.That was there for years.Ryan air pilots should have extra training prior to flying into Funchal not on the job,which is a bit scary if you ask me.

      1. I also remember that time. The first time I was on Madeira in 1980, we also went to Porto Santo. I was 8 years old. Now I have been there more than 50 times.
        Christina from Denmark

      2. Pilots have to go through additional training to qualify to take off and land from Madeira Airport. I don’t know what this idiot was thinking, maybe to save ten seconds on the flight time 😂 Making a decision like that could cost lives. Well done to ATC for making him do it correctly.

        1. So true ryanair and easyjet short cut everything, My last two flights to madeirra I notced one pilot leave the cockpit with just the one inside the cockpit after the terrible tradergy over France not so long this was outlawed. I told the cabin Manager it was tabook and he shrugged his shoulders.

  4. To a pilot the three most useless things are, 1) Fuel in the bowser, 2) Runway behind you, 3) Sky above you. Had Ryanair been empty he could probably have gane from the taxiway intersection with the runway if he had the appropriate performance calculations, but to back-track an unknown distance down the runway and then try to take off is crazy.
    Incidentally, I operated into FNC many times when the runway was short (5500ft?) and almost always had to call into Porto Santo for fuel on the way home. On one memorable occasion we were in a white (unpainted) aeroplane and the fuel company in Porto Santo refused to refuel us unless we paid in cash on the spot. Fortunately a whip round of the passengers raised enough cash to enable us to buy enough fuel to get back to Gatwick! Of course the passengers got their money back as they got off the plane!! Happy Days.

  5. Good lord. What was he doing? Sure he was a pilot? What a total ijit as they say. Lol 😂. I am from Madeira. I have left and landed there since a child when it was small and not fun. The pilots obviously were Portuguese as at that time only TP landed there. But since the runway has been the size it is now I have landed with BA my airline of choice and we hardly felt the landing. Let’s face it any small budget airline who haven’t really flown to places that are small or difficult land will find that hard wether you land in Madeira or Gibraltar , WELLINGTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, NEW ZEALAND PRINCESS JULIANA AIRPORT, ST MAARTEN TENZING-HILLARY AIRPORT, NEPAL. COURCHEVEL AIRPORT, FRANCE. TONCONTIN AIRPORT, HONDURAS
    Those are the dangerous airports to land. And if you are piloting a plane to those places your not going to send an ijit pilot who is to stupid to follow the lines on the tarmac to those places I would say poor people on those planes they literally have put their lives at this pilot hands who lacks knowledge on how to land in tricky airports.

  8. Typical Ryanair – they take their lead from their boss who will do anything and everything to bend the rules, if only for more publicity. They are a complete shower. I was forced to travel with them once (no other carrier on the route I needed). Never again!

  9. On the clip I notice approaching the area where normally the aircraft is turned in the direction of take off, the aircraft does not enter but makes his turn in an anti clockwise direction rather than clockwise. I’ve done over 60 trips to Madeira and don’t recall this happening, then he makes no attempt to stop and run up the engines prior to take off but turns in the middle of the runway, makes his way to the end of the runway turn area, turns in a clockwise direction, straightens up but rather than run up the engines against the brakes increases power whilst rolling. Another thing I can’t understand is I have never, anywhere, been on an aircraft where the pilot begins his take off other than the end of the runway, what ever the available length is. I’d like to see any memos that are being sent out about this.

    1. As for sitting at the end of the runway, brakes on and winding up the engines and then dropping the brakes– normal airline procedure. I was in the RAF who had VC10s with super VC10 engines and the normal procedure was taxi to the end of the runway and as you lined up slam the throttles to full and off you went. Great fun knowing the superb jockeys you had up front.

    2. The takeoff doesn’t have to occur at the end of runway in every airport. That happens in Lisbon which has a fairly long runway for instance, and narrowbodies like A320 or B737 can take a “shorter” runway. However, in Madeira rules say not only they must takeoff from the runway threshold they are also forbidden of backtracking outside the several rotation bays that are located along the runway.

  10. Some extra stress on the forward landing gear. 90 degrees turned and thrust with the engine. Not the best maneuver for the aircraft.

  11. Flew once with Ryanair (from Eindhoven to Lisbon v.v.): never again! Poor service, Inconvenient. Livestock transport, that’s what it is. Poor working conditions. Ryanair sucks!

  12. O heck! I just booked an (experimental) return flight with Ryanair for later in the year as Jet2 fares have increased enormously in price. These comments really worry me 😗

    1. In my experience, not too much with with Ryanair, mainly EasyJet, who are second from bottom of the preferred Carriers but have also flown Jet 2, also known as 2 Expensive and a couple of Whizz flights, the experience is no different. The queues at the desk are the same, the seats are the same, the food is the same, all too expensive, and the staff all give you the same big smile as you leave the aircraft. They are cheap flight operators, there to make money. We are travellers looking for a cheap flight, we get what we pay for. Board with an open mind, if there is something you don’t like, ask yourself, would any of the other cheap carriers done it any better. Meanwhile enjoy Madeira when you get there.

  13. I remember having to sit and await the V bomber take off, as like Maurice was in RAF, the vehicle,runway and everything else shuck to pieces, and noise would bust your eardrums, then brakes off and it nearly went straight up. Always one in the air and one on ground,never both on ground, RAF Waddington if memory served me well.

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