Unusual bird activity at Pune Airport sends AI flight back to Mumbai

Santosh Dhoke, Pune Airport director, said, “There was unusual bird activity today morning at the Pune Airport and due to this, some of the flight operations were affected.

‘Heavy bird activity’ at Pune Airport impacted two to three flight operations at the airport. An Air India flight from Mumbai to Pune, hovered over Pune Airport for more than an hour before being sent back to Mumbai Airport. Similarly, another flight from Pune to Delhi was delayed as it could not take off from the runway at Pune Airport and passengers were stranded at the airport.

The pilot hovered over Pune Airport as he was not able to get clearance to land. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC)

The Air India flight (AI841) from Mumbai to Pune was scheduled to depart from Mumbai Airport at around 10 am and reach Pune by 10.30 am. Rohit Motwani who was onboard the flight, said, “The flight took off at the scheduled time from Mumbai and as we reached Pune, it wouldn’t land at the airport at 10.30 am. Then for the next one hour, the pilot hovered over Pune Airport as he was not able to get clearance to land and finally at around 11.45 am, the pilot announced that due to heavy bird activity at Pune Airport, we would not be able to land and hence, the flight was returning to Mumbai.”

“We then returned to Mumbai Airport and after landing, the airline announced that the same flight would depart for Pune. Accordingly, we flew back to Pune by the same flight and reached Pune Airport at 3.30 pm. During its first departure, the flight was 80% full but during its second departure, some passengers demanded a full refund and refused to travel by the airline,” Motwani said.

Similarly, an Indigo flight (6E2661) from Pune to Delhi which was scheduled to depart from Pune Airport at 11.15 am was delayed due to this unusual bird activity and took off from Pune Airport not before 12.30 pm. Some of the other flights scheduled to arrive at Pune Airport were also diverted like one of the flights coming from Chennai was diverted to Hyderabad.

Santosh Dhoke, Pune Airport director, said, “There was unusual bird activity today morning at the Pune Airport and due to this, some of the flight operations were affected. One of the flights from Mumbai to Pune was sent back and some flights were diverted by the airlines. But within a couple of hours, the situation became normal again and then, throughout the day, the flight operations normalised.”