Report finds 'mayday' call issued from JP McManus' private plane

THE pilot of a  private jet owned by businessman JP McManus declared a ‘Mayday’ alert after one of the engines failed shortly after it took off from Shannon Airport last summer, an official report has revealed.

Mr McManus was one of four people on board the twin-engined Gulfstream plane, which was heading from Shannon to Farnborough in the UK on July 7, 2019. 

In its report, the Air Accident Investigation Unit at the Department of Transport confirmed the incident occurred over County Waterford at around 4.45pm – 15 minutes after take - off.

After an initial “engine maintenance” message was relayed to the crew,  the left-hand engine unexpectedly shut down less than 20 seconds later. “At this time the aircraft was climbing at approximately 2,000 feet per minute and was at an indicated airspeed of approximately 300 knots,” states the report.

After leveling the aircraft and stabilising the speed, the commander made contact with the manufacturer’s technical support team and decided to return to Shannon as it was the aircraft’s home base, had a long runway, and there was likely to be less air traffic.

“The Commander decided that due to the suddenness of the shutdown, and the fact that the right-hand engine was in alternate mode, the best course of action was to land the aircraft as soon as possible,” states the report.

The pilots initially declared a PAN (urgent call) but this was later upgraded to a Mayday call - the international call for help used when an aircraft is in serious danger.

After returning to Shannon, the plane landed safely and all crew and passengers disembarked as normal. There were no injuries.

Following the incident, a review of the engine data identified that the root cause of the shutdown was a software issue associated wth the Electronic Engine Controller. The engine manufacturer informed the AAUI that in September 2018 another Gulfstream plane experienced a similar fault which also resulted in an engine shut down.