Bird hit Jet Air plane still grounded

KATHMANDU:

A Jet Airways aircraft that was hit by a bird (black kite) on Monday has had a serious engine problem and is still grounded. Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) officials said that since the engine cannot be fixed it will be replaced and the aircraft will be flown back to India on January 1 or 3 for further maintenance.

The flight, 9W 268, en-route to Kathmandu from Mumbai had been hit by a bird at 12:00 noon when it was just two to three km away from TIA runway. Averting a major accident, it had landed safely. “There are some internal damages in the left engine caused by the hit,” said Deo Chandra Lal Karn, chief of Airport Operation Department, TIA Civil Aviation Office.

A team of engineers had also arrived from India on Monday evening to fix the engine. After failing to fix the problem, Jet Airways had not submitted a technical report of the aircraft to the TIA till 5:00 pm today. Karn said that since the damage was ‘serious’ its left engine will be replaced and the aircraft will be checked by special Airbus engineers in India.

Quoting an Indian engineer, Karn said that a metal particle that fragmented due to the hit is suspected to have damaged the engine. Based on the pilot’s reporting regarding the incident to the TIA, Karn said that the pilot had felt a loss of power in the left engine after something, now confirmed to be a bird, entered it.

The bird-hit had also sparked a fire in the engine. Civil aviation experts said that even if a bird-hit causes damage to the engine like in the incident on Monday, a jet can cross 80 miles of distance by ‘gliding’ for emergency landing and can make safe landing with just a single engine.

Source: THT