A transatlantic jet was forced to divert and make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport early today after a technical problem in the cockpit area gave cause for concern.
United Airlines flight 952 was travelling from Dulles International Airport in Washington to Frankfurt in Germany at the time of the incident. There were 190 passengers and crew on board the jet.
Units of the fire brigade from Shannon Town along with ambulances from Ennis and Limerick were sent to the airport where they were placed on stand by at the airport fire station.
Two units of the fire brigade from Ennis were also deployed to a designated holding area close to Dromoland on the main Ennis to Limerick dual-carriageway in case their services were required.
A spokesperson for Shannon Airport said, "United Airlines flight 952 was travelling from Washington to Frankfurt at the time. We were notified of the precautionary technical diversion at around 5.30am. The aircraft was carrying 190 souls and landed safely at 6.13am. Operations at the airport were not affected during the emergency landing."
The spokesperson could not however confirm the nature of the emergency except to say that it was a technical issue. It is understood however that there was a technical problem in the cockpit area which resulted in smoke
entering the flight deck. Although not confirmed, it is thought that smoke was detected in the cockpit.
Passengers were disembarked from the aircraft as a precaution while fire crews carried out an inspection of the jet before engineers commenced the process of locating and resolving the problem.
The aircraft remained grounded at Shannon Airport today, but a replacement plane arrived at the mid west aerodrome at 12.30pm to take the passengers on to Frankfurt.