The captain and crew of an Aer Lingus Regional plane have been praised, after they were forced to land with almost zero visability.

The flight was en-route from Manchester on January 2nd when it was affected by - what is described as - a very rare but significant issue with its windscreen.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) found that sea salt had built up on the glass of the cockpit, leading to reduced visibility.

The aircraft attempted to land at Cork Airport several times.

This image shows sea salt stuck to the windscreen | Image: AAIU

The AAIU report found: "A thick layer of sea salt formed on the front windscreens, obscuring the flight crew's forward visibility".

After three attempts, the aircraft landed successfully with the help of radar control.

The report concluded: "It is likely that the aircraft windscreens began picking up the sea salt contamination while flying along this track, although its presence at that stage is unlikely to have been of particular significance to the flight crew, in the absence of strong external light sources."

"However, when making their second approach...when the runway lighting would have been the primary external landing aid, their forward vision was obscured to such an
extent that they had no alternative but to execute another go-around".

It also added that neither the aircraft manufacturers ATR or Airbus had any record of a similar event on file.

The AAIU praised the crew for their actions, saying they "exercised good airmanship" during the incident.