Ryanair flight forced to divert to Aarhaus

A Ryanair plane was forced to make an unscheduled landing due to technical problems yesterday.

Flight FR686 from Stansted Airport to Vasteras near Stockholm with 99 passengers and six crew on board diverted to Aarhus in Denmark. According to a company spokeswoman the Boeing 737-800 developed technical difficulties.

Passengers were brought to Vasteras more than four hours later by a replacement Ryanair aircraft. Yesterday's was the sixth minor incident relating to a Ryanair plane over the last nine months.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today said they were not unhappy with the level of incidents reported by Ryanair. Both Aer Lingus and Ryanair claim to operate approximately 200 flights per day and an IAA source said their safety records were "broadly comparable".

All airlines using Irish airports report "technical" incidents to the IAA, although these statistics are not published. Incidents are also reported to the aircraft manufacturers.

An Aer Lingus spokesman confirmed all incidents are reported to the IAA but declined to give figures for the number of reports in 2001.

In October last year a Ryanair aircraft en route to London Stansted landed at Tirstrup Airport in western Denmark due to a reported loss in cabin pressure.