On Thursday (October 3), a Ryanair Boeing passenger plane was evacuated after it caught fire while getting ready to take off at Brindisi Airport in southern Italy. Thankfully, all 184 passengers and crew members got off the plane safely.
The scary incident happened just two days after another Ryanair flight had serious problems, which led to the temporary closing of Milan Bergamo Airport.
Ryanair Boeing Fire Causes Flight Disruption, Passenger Evacuations
An official at Brindisi Airport confirmed that a fire caused air traffic to stop for several hours. Ryanair announced that the plane was supposed to fly to Turin, a city in northern Italy.
According to reports from the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, the passengers who were evacuated from the plane at Brindisi experienced "moments of fear." After the fire, all flights were stopped for nearly three hours and started again at 11:25 AM local time.
A Ryanair representative said they were sorry for the trouble caused to passengers and assured them that another plane was scheduled to leave later that day so they could continue their journey to Turin.
Witnesses from another Ryanair flight recently shared alarming stories when all four tires blew out during landing in Italy. Passengers remembered the smell of burning rubber, which added to the tension in the cabin.
The airline explained that during the morning, the crew saw fumes on the outside of the aircraft, which caused a delay for Flight FR8826. Passengers were quickly taken off the plane and taken back to the terminal by bus. After the fire, the damaged plane was replaced, and flights started again about three hours later.
This situation at Brindisi Airport follows a troubling event that happened on Tuesday when a Ryanair flight coming from Barcelona had a tire blowout while landing at Milan Bergamo Airport.
This issue caused the airport to close temporarily while engineers checked the plane to make sure it was safe. Ryanair reported that passengers were able to leave the plane safely, but the airport was disrupted until the aircraft was fixed.
Lawmakers Demand Investigation
According to CNN, the series of events this week has alarmed several Italian lawmakers, leading them to call for an investigation into Ryanair's safety record. Lawmakers Andrea Caroppo and Mauro D'Attis, who are part of the Forza Italia party, are asking for a hearing with the National Civil Aviation Authority, known as ENAC.
Caroppo shared his worries, saying that yet another accident happened on a Ryanair plane at Brindisi Airport, which makes it necessary to have an immediate meeting with the ENAC leaders to discuss the safety of Ryanair flights, which carry the most passengers in Italy.
In their statement, the lawmakers mentioned several recent incidents. They talked about one in May when a flight from Bari to London had to turn back because of technical problems.
They also mentioned another flight from Bologna to Brussels that had to make an emergency landing in Luxembourg because of a fire onboard. These repeated problems have raised concerns about how safe the airline really is.
