AN AIRCRAFT carrying almost 150 holidaymakers from Greece to Dublin was escorted into Rome airport by fighter jets last Friday after reporting a technical fault.
The Italian air force treated the incident as an emergency due to airspace restrictions that were in place because of the G8 summit in L’Aquila last week.
The Boeing 737, operated by Primera Air for Budget Travel, was en route from the Greek island of Zakynthos to Dublin on Friday afternoon when the captain informed passengers that a technical fault required it to land in Rome.
It is understood Italian air traffic controllers instructed that the plane land at Naples due to airspace restrictions over Fiumicino airport outside Rome. However, the captain insisted on landing at Fiumicino because he required a long runway, Primera Air said in a statement.
The company also said the heightened security measures in place for the G8 summit made it likely that an aircraft making an unscheduled landing would be escorted down by fighter aircraft.
“The aircraft landed in Rome uneventfully and underwent maintenance,” the statement added.
However, a spokesman for the Italian air force told The Irish Times last night that, on entering Italian airspace, the Boeing 737 descended from 38,000 to 20,000 feet without giving any notification to air traffic controllers. “Due to the change of the altitude and the attempt to land at Fiumicino, the order to scramble [the jets] was made,” he added.
Budget Travel said yesterday it had not received any communication to suggest that air traffic controllers were not informed of any dip in altitude.
One of the passengers, Laura Farrelly from Kells, Co Meath, said a feeling of panic set in after cabin crew reported a technical problem just minutes after take-off.
“I was praying . . . What freaked me out was a man a few seats behind me who said his act of contrition and I thought, my number’s up.”
She also complained that there was a lack of information for passengers on arrival at Fiumicino, where they remained for 10 hours before a replacement aircraft was available. “People generally felt they were rude to us in the airport in Italy. Nobody asked us were we all right, and nine rugs were issued for 150 people,” Ms Farrelly said.
A spokesman for Budget Travel apologised for any inconvenience passengers experienced at the airport and attributed any delays and poor communication to the fact that neither Budget nor Primera had any staff based at the airport.
“We apologise for that inconvenience, but I’m quite happy given what I have heard from Primera that the priority was the health and safety of the passengers.”
