Airline Sued for Buzzing Elderly Woman

An 82-year-old German woman living near the Hamburg-Luebeck airport claims that a Ryanair plane coming in for a landing flew to close too her house and blew off roof tiles. Now the small community where she lives has banded together to sue the airline.

Ilse Matschkus apparently suffered from shock from the incident and was taken to the hospital.

"The aircraft flew over and the elderly lady, the owner of the house, was in the garden at the time clearing up branches when the tiles came down," police spokeswoman Sonja Kurz told AFP .

According to The Local , a German news web site, a group against jet noise has accused the airline of negligent bodily harm, endangerment of air traffic and willful property damage in connection with the incident that occurred earlier this month in Gross Groena.

Ryanair denies the aircraft buzzed Matschkus' house, according to The Irish Times . And airport authorities have said the aircraft was flying at the correct height and did not deviate from its regular landing path above nearby houses.

Ryanair had more bad press this week when the airline was named as Britain's worst "family brand" in a study which ranks the country's biggest and best-known companies, reported The Telegraph .

The airline recently released a 2010 calendar featuring female flight attendants stripping down , all in the name of charity.

An incident involving a civilian pilot in a Soviet-made military jet flying very close to the Santa Monica Pier in California last year led to many scared people and emergency calls to the police. The pilot ultimately lost his license and faces a misdemeanor criminal case.