Late-night flight is turned back 90 seconds from landing

It is understood visibility was good and the wheels were down, as the delayed 8.55pm approached Guernsey just after 11.30pm on Sunday night.

It was over St Martin’s at 11.35pm when the landing was aborted on the orders of Guernsey air traffic control.

Guernsey Ports managing director Colin Le Ray apologised to passengers, but said regulations meant there had to be a cut-off.

‘Aurigny were made aware earlier in the afternoon that the airport’s strict cut-off time for landing back in Guernsey was 11.35pm,’ he said.

In more than 20 years at Guernsey Airport, this was the only incident of this kind he could recall.

‘We will work with Aurigny to fully understand what happened, and better understand how this might be avoided in future.’

Guernsey Ports now plans to review its late night extensions policy.

An Aurigny spokeswoman said the flight had departed Exeter following an agreement with air traffic control to extend the airport’s opening hours.

‘However, shortly before landing, and with the aircraft being at 800ft and 1.5 nautical miles from the runway, ATC instructed our pilot to divert back to Exeter as the extended airport hours would have been missed by approximate 90 seconds,’ he said.

The States’ Trading Supervisory Board is the Aurigny shareholder, and president Peter Roffey apologised unreservedly for the Exeter issues.

‘Clearly this is a result of operational decisions, but from an STSB perspective it is incredibly disappointing given that we are responsible for both Aurigny and Guernsey Ports,’ he said.

‘We are seeking to fully understand from them what happened, but it is clearly very regrettable.’

G-OGFC, the plane operating the service, had flown already four UK rotations on Sunday. It was brought in to operate the Exeter route, with the 7.05pm service not leaving Guernsey until just after 10pm, causing a knock-on delay for the return leg.

Exeter passengers finally arrived on the ground in Guernsey just after noon yesterday.

Sue Gardiner was at Guernsey Airport on Sunday night to pick up her husband Simon from the delayed Exeter flight.

‘The plane came close enough over the car park so you could read the registration on the bottom,’ she said.

‘The cost of putting everyone up and the other expenses must be costing the airline a fortune. We really need to know who is responsible, the airline or the airport themselves.’

Mr Gardiner said the whole experience was appalling.

‘At the time I was very tired and frustrated,’ he said. ‘But on reflection it feels negligent, even dangerous, to take off if you could not land at the other end. You assume Aurigny and the airport actually speak to each other, so to have the experience we had is pretty shocking.’

Fellow passenger John Turner said the decision not to let the plane land had been ridiculous.

‘They shouldn’t have let us take off if we couldn’t land, ‘ he said.

‘The pilot told us afterwards he was only 30 seconds from landing. I’m here for work and as I’m self-employed this has cost me a day’s wages.’

Deputy Simon Vermeulen said he had received nearly a dozen calls about the Exeter flight.

‘A full investigation needs to be conducted into this incident,’ he said. ‘The closure is a decision by Guernsey Airport. It seems to me that the airport and the airline are not working as one unit.’