A passenger jet was forced to return to Dublin Airport today after the crew reported a problem with their landing gear soon after take-off.
Air France flight AF1279, operated by Irish airline CityJet, had departed for Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris shortly before 12.30pm when the crew reported to air traffic controllers they appeared to have a problem with the undercarriage.
The crew told controllers they were concerned the landing gear on their Avro RJ85 jet had not retracted fully. The pilot informed controllers they wished to return to the airport.
Emergency services at Dublin were alerted and mobilised to locations along the runway ahead of the jet’s return.
Cabin crew staff looked out the cabin window in an effort to confirm whether the gear had extended normally.
The crew were cleared to return and on approach confirmed to controllers they had extended the gear for landing and that their cockpit systems had indicated the gear had locked into position.
The crew also indicated they expected to make a normal landing but confirmed they required emergency services on standby as a precaution.
Emergency crews remained on standby, with some vehicles following the aircraft along the runway after it had landed safely.
The crew reported everything appeared normal and continued to the terminal building with airport fire crews remaining with the jet.
The passengers were deplaned while engineers investigated the problem. A replacement aircraft took the passengers to Paris a short time later.
The incident jet was later cleared to return to service.
Commenting on the incident, a CityJet spokesperson said: “A wet-lease flight we were operating for Air France, AF 1279, from Dublin to Paris, did return to Dublin Airport after departure due to a landing gear notification issue. The flight had 85 passengers and four crew members.
“Once the flight landed in Dublin safely, the passengers and crew were transferred to another aircraft that departed at 14:15 with an overall 2 hour and 15 minute delay.”