Ninety-seven passengers on board an Iberia airlines flight from Barcelona had to be evacuated via the emergency chutes after a power unit on board the Airbus 300 plane caught fire as it came in to land at Dublin airport last Wednesday. Fire services and ambulances chased the plane as it landed and the airport was shut down for an hour.

Earlier on the same day, an Armenian Airbus 320 aircraft crashed into the Black Sea off the Russian coast, killing all 113 people on board, including at least five children. The aircraft, which was on a short one-hour journey from the Armenian capital of Yerevan, had initially been refused permission to land at Sochi in Russia because of torrential rain. Airport officials then changed their mind but the plane crashed on its second attempt to land.

"There is no evidence to suggest that Aer Lingus should review its decision to purchase two long-haul Airbus 330 aircraft, " said an Aer Lingus spokeswoman after last week's accidents.

The state-owned airline plans to use the new planes, which are to be delivered in June next year, on longhaul flights to the US once the Shannon stopover has been scrapped.

This will leave the state airline with nine A330 aircraft for long-haul flights and 27 short-haul aircraft of which six are A321s and 21 are A320s.

Speaking after the purchase was confirmed last month, Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion said that Airbus planes were the "most efficient aircraft in its class".

Christopher Buckley, vice-president in Europe of Airbus, said that the purchase "confirms Aer Lingus' confidence in Airbus' modern family of aircraft".

On top of the two accidents last week, the US National Transport Safety Board last year ordered detailed rudder inspections of over 100 European-made Airbus aircraft after the rudder of a Canadian passenger jet nearly fell off while in flight.

Also, just last week, the Airline Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) in Ireland published details of another near-fatal incident in June 2004 in which the engine of a 12-year-old Airbus A330 en route from Dublin to New York caught fire two minutes after take-off.

All fire engines at Dublin airport were scrambled but the plane, with 315 people on board, returned safely. The AAIU report noted that the engine on the 12-year-old aircraft had been removed from another aircraft of the fleet just two months previously.