RYANAIR HAS introduced new safety procedures after a child fell on to the tarmac from the top of a passenger staircase while boarding an aircraft at Stansted airport in England.
The three-year-old girl escaped with only minor injuries after falling through a gap between the extendable handrail and the top of the Boeing 737’s boarding steps in July 2009.
A report into the incident by Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the child had climbed the stairs unassisted as her mother, journalist Sasha Slater, was carrying her 18-month- old son, Joe, and hand luggage.
“When the child reached the top of the stairs, she turned towards her mother, leaned backwards and fell through the gap between the extendable handrail and the top of the airstairs on to the hardstanding below,” the report said.
After receiving initial medical assistance, the girl, Olga, was flown to hospital and was released 24 hours later.
The AAIB report concluded that the gap between the extendable handrail and the upper platform of the Boeing 737 airstairs represented “a hazard to small children boarding or disembarking the aircraft”. It recommended that Ryanair review its current passenger boarding and disembarkation procedures “so that assistance is made available to passengers accompanied by children and those with special needs”.
In response, the airline yesterday issued a brief statement saying it had reviewed its procedures as recommended by the AAIB and introduced new safety measures for boarding and disembarking aircraft “to eliminate any recurrence of these extremely rare events”.
The AAIB noted that the Federal Aviation Authority in the US had investigated four similar incidents.
