Bird-hit grounds flight at Bangalore airport

More than 160 passengers on board a Coimbatore-bound flight had a providential escape after their aircraft sufferred a bird-hit during its take-off run at the HAL airport in Bangalore on Sunday.

Airport officials said the Jet Lite’s Boeing 737 flight to Coimbatore from Bangalore had to be aborted seconds before take-off due to the bird-hit. The pilot brought the aircraft, which was already on its take-off run, to a halt immediately after sensing a bird-hit.

A thick cloud of smoke came out of the wheels due the sudden application of brakes. The aircraft was immediately towed away to the parking bay and the passengers were evacuated. Nobody was injured in the incident, officials said.

According to Jet Lite spokesperson, the flight was at full throttle when the pilot noticed a pair of kites on the runway and aborted the take-off. The sudden application of brakes resulted in the tyres getting deflated, the spokesperson said.

A team of aircraft engineers from Delhi was flown down to Bangalore to assess the extent of damage to the aircraft. The team found that the landing gear of the aircraft including the tyres were slightly damaged, but there was no problem with the engine.

After the checks were completed, the flight took off to Coimbatore later in the evening and reached the destination safely in 40 minutes, airport officials said.

Airport authorities, however, made light of the incident and said that the time schedules of other flights were not disrupted due to the incident. “There was no impact on the air traffic due to the incident”, officials said.

However, Jet Lite’s bird-hit comes close on the heels of an incident in which a Kingfisher aircraft had to abort its flight after a dog strayed on the runway at Bangalore airport last week.

Airport officials have expressed concern over the area around the airport being infested with large number of dogs and birds due to uncovered drains. The airport authorities frequent reminders to the municipal authorities to keep the area around the airport clean have fallen on deaf ears.