An investigation has been launched into a ‘serious incident’ involving an aircraft landing on the wrong runway at Ronaldsway airport last year.

Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has issued an anniversary statement which took place on August 29 2022.

The pilot of the Vans RV-7, a two seater plane, approached and landed on runway 03 instead of the active runway 08.

The investigation is looking in to the air traffic control officer, who was attending to ground activities at the time and did not observe the aircraft during its final approach.

It is also considering the importance of recovering situation awareness and adopting sterile cockpit procedures before flying an approach.

The Department of Infrastructure (DOI) has since released a statement following scrutiny from the AAIB, saying that ‘all necessary follow-up actions were taken’ and Ronaldsway airport conducted a ‘thorough investigation’ after the incident.

The DOI statement said: ‘This occurrence involved an aircraft which landed on a different runway than it had been cleared to land on, circumstances which required reporting to the AAIB.

‘The airport conducted a thorough investigation following its standard safety management procedures and all necessary follow-up actions were taken.’

The Isle of Man falls into the same Air Accident Investigation Branch as the UK.

A final report on the incident from AAIB is to be published soon.