Author: Gareth O’Brien

On Thursday 5th October 2023, DAA told the Sunday Business Post newspaper that they are unable to implement our proposal describing it as “not workable” and using the words “complex”, “complicated” and “requiring significant changes” to the procedures. Of course they threw in “SAFETY” to scare off any who might question them.

On Sunday 8th October 2023, they unintentionally implemented it!

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/fr119#325b25b3

Ryanair flight FR119 performed a missed approach. Because the existing published missed approach route is dangerous, Air Traffic Control staff must intervene and redirect the aircraft every time one happens. In this case they sent the Ryanair jet on almost the exact missed approach path that AirNav has told Minister Jack Chambers cannot be done because it would interfere with the massive block of airspace reserved for the Aircorp.

So let’s have a look at the “not workable” proposal which we explain in a separate article. Here our proposed missed approach track is in yellow shown against the flight path actually flown by Ryanair under instruction from the Tower controllers at Dublin Airport.

The data shows that at the point where the two tracks diverge the aircraft was already at 2800 ft, leveling and accelerating, already well above the 2000ft ceiling of Weston airspace. They continued to gently climb to 4000 ft and managed to avoid both laterally and vertically infringing the blue block which it Aircorp reserved airspace around Baldonnell.

So then, far from not workable, they actually did it. They flew over Dublin city, D6 and D4 and no one lost their mind about the noise, a concern raised by AirNav about the 1/day missed approach, but not about 300+ departures over large towns in Meath.

Once again it is apparent that the proposal is perfectly workable. AirNav and Dublin airport could do this in a matter of months … IF THEY WANTED TO!

DAA CEO Kenny Jacobs repeatedly told Miriam O’Callaghan on RTE Prime Time that departing aircraft are following “the intended route”. What he didn’t say was intended by whom and when.

DAA was granted planning permission in 2007 to build the north runway. Given the crash in 2008 and its effects on aviation, they delayed construction until 2019, having built a fence and moved a road in 2016 to prevent the 10-year planning permission from expiring. The other thing that happened in 2016 was a “public consultation” to change the routes the departing aircraft would use. It appears these were the intended routes that former Ryanair CMO and current DAA CEO Kenny Jacobs kept mentioning on the Prime Time programme when challenged that DAA has breached its planning permission with every flight that has taken off from the North runway.

Mr Jacobs never answered the question about the DAA’s persistent planning permission breach, instead trotting out the carefully lawyered phrase “intended route”. This is of course was intended to mislead viewers into thinking he was claiming that DAA is in compliance with the planning permission while leaving him able to say that he didn’t actually lie. The current route absolutely is the DAA’s intended route. They’ve intended it at least since 2016.

The problem for the DAA is that while they intended the aircraft to follow this route in 2016, they didn’t when they applied for the planning permisson that was granted in 2007. Back then the Environmental Impact Study and the noise maps were all based on climbing straight ahead for at least 5 nautical miles before turning. Compliance with this is condition 1 of the planning permission. So when Mr Jacobs tells us the planning is complicated, perhaps our timeline can help.

As of 2023 there is exactly one unaltered planning permission in force; the original one granted in 2007 that requires all planes to fly straight ahead for 5 nautical miles. Any deviation from this is in breach of the law.

The logic is fantastic. If you don’t like planning restrictions, just go ahead and build whatever you please and then claim it’s what you intended. Want to put a pig farm next to a housing estate? Get planning permission granted for a barn without mentioning the pigs and put them in once the barn is built. “I always intended to have a pig farm!”

Check out RTE Prime Time’s article on the RTE website

2023 An Bord Pleanála and the “Relevant Action”

Fast forward to 2023 and daa is at it again. Having had their Relevant Action application granted by Fingal County Council, and how that came about is an interesting story, daa had to make a submission to An Bord Pleanála (ABP) with a new Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR). Constitutionally incapable of honesty, daa decided to hide their breach of the 2005 planning permission and hope ABP grants retention of the current flight paths by accident.

Click here for that ugly story …