Air Arabia flight service suspended following bird hit

By Express News Service  |   Published: 30th October 2017 02:04 AM  |  

COIMBATORE: AN Air Arabia flight from Sharjah was grounded at Coimbatore airport after the fight suffered a snag following a bird hit during landing here in the early hours of Sunday. A mishap was avoided when the flight landed on the runway after the bird hit. According to airport officials, the daily international flight usually landed at 4 am at Coimbatore International Airport and departed for Sharjah at 4.40 am. When the flight was preparing to land the pilot heard a sound on the left wing.

The pilot landed the flight which had 107 passengers on board. Inspection later showed damage to the wing. Following the snag, the return service to Sharjah from Coimbatore was suspended and crew of about 163 passengers were forced to wait some hours. Then some of them were sent to Cochin, Chennai through domestic flights in order for them to reach Sharjah.

A technical team was called to correct the snag. As of 6 pm on Sunday, the flight service was not resumed. Officials said it would be ready by Sunday night. R Mahalingam, director, Coimbatore International Airport, said, “It has been identified that a bird hit damaged the left wing when the plane was 400 ft above the outer space of the airport exactly at Chinniampalayam.”He said,  “To stop the such incidents, we have made a technical arrangement using sonar gun, which emits sound during the take off and landing of flights. We cannot prevent bird hits in space outside the airport.”