A Ryanair cabin crew member was seriously injured when being hit by catering trolley which became dislodged.
A report by the Air Accidents Investigations Branch said the Boeing 737 with no passengers on board was re-positioning from Cologne to Stansted in December when the incident happened.
The report said: “A catering cart became dislodged from its stowage in the aft galley when the aircraft landed.
“It travelled down the centre aisle and seriously injured one of the cabin crew, who was sitting in an aft-facing jumpseat by the forward left door.”
The crew member tried to protect himself by raising his knees towards his chest “but when the cart struck him it fractured his left femur and caused a minor hand injury.
“Being unaware his leg was broken, he had attempted to stand up but collapsed onto the floor,” the report said.
He was taken off the aircraft by stretcher to hospital.
As a result, Ryanair has circulated a memorandum to all its crews reminding them of the cabin procedures which are to be followed during a positioning flight, according to the AAIB.
The official report also details how a Flybe co-pilot suffered a seizure causing him to make “inadvertent rudder inputs” which caused the autopilot to disconnect.
The aircraft’s pilot was able to control the Dash 8 with 43 passengers on board while a senior cabin crew members attempted to restrain the co-pilot.
The aircraft, flying from Inverness to Jersey in August last year, was forced to divert to Manchester airport where it landed safely for the co-pilot to be taken to hospital.
The AAIB report said: “The co-pilot was released from hospital after three hours. He had not previously shown any symptoms which might have alerted him or his colleagues in advance to the seizure which occurred on the fight. No other crew or passengers suffered any ill effects during the flight.”