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Air Asia Lucknow-Kolkata flight suffers bird hit, take-off aborted
A spokesperson for the Lucknow airport said the Air Asia pilot suspected the bird hit during the take-off roll and slowly aborted the take-off
Around 180 passengers and eight crew members of an Air Asia flight i5-319 from Lucknow to Kolkata had a close shave when the plane suffered a bird hit during the take-off roll at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow on Sunday.
The pilot suspected the bird hit during the take-off roll but he didn’t panic and slowly aborted the take-off, said a spokesperson for the airport. The flight was supposed to take off at 11am but was grounded immediately for a detailed check.It had to land in Kolkata at 12.35pm.
Following the incident, the passengers were deplaned, offered refreshments and assured by the airline’s staff that they would be taken to their destination soon.
The spokesperson for the Lucknow airport further said no passenger came to know about the incident when they were deplaned. “The Indian Airlines management handled the situation well. The plane is still grounded and engineers are checking it,” the spokesperson added.
According to people familiar with the matter, the presence of birds around the runway has been a problem for the Lucknow airport and a number of times animals like jackals and hyena have intruded the runway.
An official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), on condition of anonymity, said, “The AAI has raised the matter of meat shops operating near the airport with the district administration several times. The meat leftovers attract birds, thus compromising safe operation of the aircraft.” The officer said the problem was aggravated by some villagers living in the vicinity of the airport as they threw garbage outside their houses that also attracted birds.
