A PASSENGER plane continued to fly for 11 days after being involved in a difficult landing incident because a holiday airline did not appreciate the seriousness of the event, an air accident report has said.

The Boeing 737 operated by Thomsonfly stalled as it came into land at Bournemouth airport on a flight from Faro in Portugal, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said.

The crew managed to eventually safely land the plane, carrying 132 passengers, but the air safety report filed by the captain did not depict the event accurately, the report added.

The AAIB said ''the seriousness of the event'' on the night of September 23, 2007 was not appreciated until the airline looked into it further on October 4.

The plane was ''not subjected to an engineering examination to ensure its continued airworthiness and remained in service throughout this period''.

The report said that, as the plane approached Bournemouth Airport, the auto-throttle disengaged - something that was neither commanded nor recognised by the crew.

With the thrust levers in the idle position, the aircraft's speed ''decayed rapidly'' and the captain decided to initiate a ''go around'' where the crew pull back from landing and make a fresh attempt to touch down.

During this go-around, the aircraft pitched nose-up by as much as 44 degrees and air speed reduced to 82 knots (around 94mph) - below the speed required for landing.

The crew were, however, able to recover control of the aircraft and complete a subsequent approach and landing at Bournemouth.

The AAIB made three safety recommendations designed to ensure such an incident is not repeated.

The report added that Thomsonfly had undertaken significant changes to its flight data monitoring and safety management systems.

Thomsonfly (now known as Thomson Airways) said today it welcomed the AAIB report and added that the captain involved had left the airline and the co-pilot had been retrained.

Thomson said no one was hurt or injured and the aircraft remained at more than 1,500 feet above the ground throughout the incident.

The airline went on: ''The passengers were unaware of the incident, the seriousness of which only became apparent to Thomson Airways when it reviewed flight monitoring data on October 4 2007.

''Thomson immediately grounded both aircraft and the aircrew, alerted all other aircrew about the incident and correct procedure and informed the AAIB to allow for a full investigation into the incident.''

Thomson's flight operations director Captain John Murphy said: ''Safety is our absolute number one priority. We are determined that every incident should be investigated thoroughly so lessons can be learnt and we can improve safety yet further.”