Bird Hit

AI flight grounded in 20 minutes, bird hit suspected to be cause

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:

A Chennai-Delhi Air India flight (AI 440) was forced to return around 20 minutes after taking off from Chennai airport on Wednesday due to a suspected bird hit.

The A321 aircraft took off at 6.47am with 130 passengers from the main runway in the direction of Pallavaram. It climbed to 6,000ft and was cruising at 500kmph over Gummidipoondi when the pilot suspected some trouble with an engine and reported the same to the air traffic control. Sources said that the pilot requested for a return and asked for priority landing.

The flight landed safely and the aircraft had been grounded. The passengers disembarked and were brought to the terminal. They were accommodated in other flights belonging to the airline.

An airport official said that the pilot did not report a bird strike but said he felt some vibration on the right engine. An inspection revealed that three blades of the engine were damaged.

“The blades were bent a little and the engineers suspect that it may be because a bird hit the engine. However, the engine was free of remains. Since there is no other way an engine can be damaged, authorities believe that it was a case of bird strike. But the pilot has not reported spotting any birds,” he added.