Portuguese investigators have disclosed that a Ryanair Boeing 737-800 flew four flights before the discovery of damage to an engine nacelle that had occurred during a landing incident the day before.
The aircraft, arriving from Bergamo on 15 November last year, had been conducting an ILS approach to Faro’s runway 28.
Portuguese investigation authority GPIAAF, in a fourth-quarter bulletin for 2025, states that thunderstorms and crosswinds were present at the time.
The crew made “significant” aileron inputs during the flare, it adds, and the jet bounced after an initial 1.69g touchdown on its main landing-gear.
Its left-hand main gear lifted and the aircraft rolled 9° to the right, with the nose-gear touching down before the left gear regained runway contact.
“Subsequent aircraft deceleration on the runway occurred normally,” says GPIAAF. “The crew did not consider that a hard landing had occurred and all aircraft systems were operating as normal.”
But it states that the right-hand nacelle of its CFM International CFM56 powerplant sustained underside strike damage, which went undetected by engineers during ramp checks and by the crew during pre-flight walkaround.
The jet (EI-ENG) flew four more sectors before the damage was observed.
GPIAAF says the airline grounded the jet for repair and carried out an internal investigation, putting in place mitigating measures.
It adds that the occurrence emphasises the need for “continuous airworthiness assessment” and the importance of “rigorously adhering” to scheduled inspection programmes, “irrespective of additional reports from flightcrews”.
