Malta Air Flight Landed In Manchester With Less Than 6 Minutes Of Fuel Left

A Malta Air Boeing 737-800 landed at Manchester Airport with less than six minutes of fuel remaining after three windshear escape manoeuvres during Storm Amy and an initial refusal to accept the flight's diversion request, a UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report has found.

The Ryanair-operated flight, travelling from Pisa to Glasgow Prestwick on 3 October 2025, was carrying 171 passengers and six crew. The pilots had loaded extra fuel before departure after receiving warnings about severe weather.

After encountering genuine windshear warnings on two landing attempts at Prestwick, the crew requested to divert to Manchester.

However, the airport initially refused the request after what investigators described as a communication breakdown within the airport, despite its own policies stating the diversion should have been accepted if capacity was available.

The aircraft instead headed to Edinburgh, where it encountered a third windshear warning and was forced to abandon another landing attempt. With fuel rapidly running low, the crew declared a fuel mayday and decided Manchester offered the safest chance of landing because of more favourable weather conditions.

The aircraft touched down safely at Manchester with just 363kg of fuel remaining, well below the required final reserve of 1,101kg. Investigators said another go-around would have been unlikely with the fuel left.

The AAIB concluded that Storm Amy caused the genuine windshear events, while the refusal of the first diversion request significantly complicated the situation.

Following the incident, Manchester Airport reinforced its diversion procedures and clarified that decisions on accepting diversions rest with Airfield Control rather than handling agents.

#MaltaDaily