

They are not the most comforting words to hear at 30,000ft.

So imagine the shock of passengers on a Flybe aircraft who heard the captain announce: 'Sorry, I'm not qualified to land the plane.'

He then turned it around and flew back to the airport they had left hours earlier.


A pilot flying a Flybe aircraft like this one to Paris had to travel 300 miles back to Cardiff because he was not trained to land this particular plane in fog

Yesterday passengers spoke of their shock at hearing the announcement as they waited for the 80-seater plane to land in Paris, which was shrouded in thick fog.

Their captain had more than 30 years of flying experience - but he had only recently started to pilot the type of plane they were in.

This meant he had not passed the necessary low-visibility training. After making the unsettling announcement at the end of the 300 mile journey, the captain flew back to Cardiff airport instead.

Enlarge   Cassandra Grant

Stunned: Passenger Cassandra Grant was on the plane

Cassandra Grant, 29, said: 'We were about 20 minutes from landing, when the captain said: "Unfortunately I'm not qualified to land the plane in Paris. We'll have to fly back".'

She added: 'It was amazing. The whole thing beggars belief. The captain apologised but said it was down to his qualification status.'

Miss Grant and her fellow passengers on flight BE1431 had already been delayed for three hours by fog at Cardiff International Airport on Tuesday morning.
Luckily, by the time the plane returned to Wales, the runway was clear. Miss Grant added: 'There were a lot of puzzled and disappointed people on board. 'When the pilot said he couldn't land the plane we all thought: "Pardon? You can fly a plane but you can't land it?"

'Everyone was pretty appalled but there was some concern that the pilot wasn't fully qualified.

'I would expect an airline pilot to have every qualification possible - then a few more.

'If he couldn't land in the Paris fog what would have happened if it was foggy back in Cardiff?'

Yesterday a spokesman for Flybe stood by the decision taken by its unnamed captain.

She said: 'He has relatively recently transferred his type-rating from a Bombardier Q300 to a Bombardier Q400.

'He has not yet completed the requisite low-visibility training to complete a landing in conditions such as the dense fog experienced in Paris Charles de Gaulle. The captain therefore quite correctly turned the aircraft around and returned to Cardiff, a decision which the company stands by 100 per cent.'

charles de gaulle

Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris where the pilot was unable to land

It is understood the plane could not be landed by the co-pilot as both pilots must have the correct flying qualifications.

The Civil Aviation Authority yesterday backed the pilot's action and said: 'He did the right thing.'

A spokesman added: 'If he had landed in Paris he could have been prosecuted.

'It is not like driving a car where you can pull over into a lay-by to look up the handbook. A pilot can't do that at 12,000 feet with 100 passengers sitting behind.'

Independent aviation consultant Simon Gill said: 'His only mistake was announcing his lack of qualification. If he had just said it was not safe to land because of adverse weather conditions, nobody would have minded.'



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