A Ryanair aircraft operating a flight from London Stansted to Osijek landed safely at Osijek Airport on Monday after a brief airborne delay caused by an employee of Croatia Control arriving late for his shift. As Croatia Control confirmed to Jutarnji list, a preliminary internal review established that the cause of the event was an individual employee’s failure to arrive for duty on time.
Although some public interpretations described the aircraft as “circling above Osijek,” it is important to point out that, in aviation, such a situation does not imply random or uncontrolled circling. It was a holding procedure, a prescribed method of keeping an aircraft within a designated area until the conditions are met for continuing the approach or landing. Such procedures are part of regular air traffic operations and are used in various situations, including runway occupancy, weather conditions, traffic sequencing or operational circumstances on the ground.
It is worth noting that the flight was not outside air traffic control supervision at any point. Croatia Control stated that the aircraft was under the supervision of the Zagreb Area Control Centre throughout the event and that, once the issue had been identified, the competent services acted in accordance with established procedures. The aircraft ultimately landed in Osijek with a minor delay and, according to Croatia Control, passenger safety was not compromised.
It is standard practice for aircraft at cruising altitudes in Croatian, as well as other, airspace to operate on area control frequencies. During arrival toward the destination, aircraft are gradually transferred to the relevant approach control unit, and in the final phase of flight to the airport tower. At smaller airports, such as Osijek, communication in the final phase takes place within the local controlled airspace, or CTR, a control zone surrounding the airport that extends from the ground up to a defined altitude.
In this case, after the expected communication with the Osijek tower was not established, the crew contacted Zagreb Radar again, meaning the area control unit. Therefore, the aircraft was not in any communication blackout, but remained in contact with the competent air traffic control unit until the situation was resolved.
According to passenger accounts, the possibility of diverting the flight to Budapest was mentioned at one point. This, too, is part of regular planning for every commercial flight. Every flight has a planned alternate airport, precisely for cases in which landing at the scheduled destination is not possible for any reason. Had such a diversion actually occurred, the airline would have been required to organise and cover the cost of onward transport for passengers to their final destination.
Croatia Control said this was an isolated case and that disciplinary measures would be taken over the identified failure. The event ended without any consequences for flight safety, but attracted attention because it occurred at a time when Osijek Airport is already in a demanding operational period due to the renovation of its passenger terminal and a reduced flight schedule following the suspension of part of the PSO routes that had, in previous years, formed an important part of eastern Croatia’s domestic air connectivity.
