Thai Airways aircraft suffers bird-hit

KATHMANDU, March 23:

A Thai Airways aircraft suffered bird-hit while landing at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on Sunday afternoon.

According to Birendra Prasad Shrestha, acting ge-neral manager of (TIA), a bird hit the right engine of Boeing 777 aircraft coming from Bangkok above Godavari at around 12:35 pm. However, the bird-hit did not create major damage. All passengers are safe.

Shrestha said preliminary investigation has shown that a black kite has hit the aircraft. The details will come after further investigation, said Shrestha.

The plane was carrying 216 passengers and 15 cabin crew. As there was no major problem, engineers allowed the aircraft to fly back. The aircraft, which was scheduled to leave Kathmandu at 1:05, returned to Bangkok at 6:30 pm. Bangkok-bound passengers of Thai Airways had to wait for the whole afternoon as the flight was not cancelled.  

Bird hit is a recurring problem at TIA.  In December, a Jet Airways aircraft had to make emergency landing after it was hit by a bird in the engine.

Source: Republica