Cork Racecourse

[2] On 18 April 1983, a Gulfstream II jet (registration XA-FOU) carrying 4 passengers and 4 crew, was travelling from New Jersey USA to Munich in Germany with a planned stop in Shannon to refuel, but could not land due to foggy weather.

The plane's captain, Ruben Ocaña, knowing he did not have enough fuel to make Cork, contacted Cork tower who directed him to Mallow Racecourse for an emergency landing, where he landed on a grass field with roughly three minutes of fuel to spare.

[4][5] Captain Ocaña told local media "I will be out of here once the ground dries out",[6] but he and his crew remained stranded in Mallow for 39 days as the planes insurers, Lloyds of London and Air Claims of America, insisted on a temporary 3,000-foot tarmac runway and rejected a proposal to take the wings off the plane and ferry it by road to Cork Airport.

The departure was broadcast on BTV[clarification needed] and Captain Ocaña said a few words in Irish to say goodbye.

After takeoff, which was witnessed by 2,000 people, Ocaña came back and made a low fly-pass over the temporary runway.