Air emergency: Ryanair flight RK178 and door problem

Ryanair flight RK178 from Belfast in Northern Ireland to Edinburgh in Scotland had been in the air for just eight minutes on October 17 when the cockpit crew reported an air emergency using transponder code 7700. The Irish airline’s Boeing 737-800 was running low. Cost and registered as G-RUKF located just off the Scottish coast at the time.

The 17-year-old plane turned around and landed in Belfast about 26 minutes later. However, to date there is very different information about the causes and details. Ryanair themselves simply stated that the plane returned to Belfast “due to a minor technical issue”. The plane landed there normally.

There was a problem with the door

Graham Keddie, director of Belfast Airport, said, according to the newspaper The Independent, a cabin pressure warning light appeared in the cockpit “shortly after” takeoff. The portal specialized in accidents Aviation Herald She stated that it was a “signal to the open door”, meaning a warning of the danger of an open door.

One of the passengers on the plane told the portal Belfast LiveIt was clear to the passengers from the moment they took off that something was wrong. The pilot checked the door several times, and the cabin crew looked frightened, some even crying.

Can’t understand the ad

Another passenger also told Belfast Live that the crew made an announcement but no one could understand anything. After landing, passengers were told that there was a problem with the door sensor.

According to the Aviation Herald report, a reader named Mary Murphy commented that she was on the plane. The flight crew noticed a problem with the door before take-off. The machine started up anyway, at which point it was very loud and air flowed into the cabin. These statements cannot be verified.

Pictures show door inspection after landing

The veracity of statements made by User X (formerly Twitter) also cannot be verified. The user named Gerard writes that the airflow and noise after takeoff were scary. He and a user named Zahra Rashid reported that the pilot checked the door before take-off. Gerard also posted two photos that were taken by several media outlets. IMPORTANT: According to User X, the photos show the door being checked again after landing, not during or before the flight:

Tested as soon as we landed again pic.twitter.com/XZCeoo2ae2

– Gerard (@gh2d09) October 17, 2023