Shannon airport has re-opened after an incident yesterday in which an Aer Lingus Regional ATR 72's nose-wheel collapsed on landing.

Operating as flight EI3601, the aircraft had departed Manchester at 08:50 and was due to arrive at Shannon at 10:15.

It made two approaches to Shannon, the second at 10:30, but "experienced a suspected failure of the nose-wheel landing gear" and veered off the runway onto grass, said Aer Arann, the operator of the service.

Shannon airport was closed until around 16:00 as emergency services dealt with the incident.

The ATR 72-200 was transporting 21 passengers and four crew members. No injuries were sustained among those on board.

"Aer Arann cannot speculate as to the cause of the incident and the Irish Aviation Authority and Air Accident Investigation Unit branch of the Department of Transport have been informed," said the carrier.

Images from the scene confirmed the turboprop was registered EI-SLM, a 17-year old airframe. Flightglobal's ACAS database last listed it as being owned by Air Contractors.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news