RANCHI: Around 175 passengers had a close shave after an IndiGo flight suffered a bird hit and made an emergency landing at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport on Monday, officials said.
All the passengers and crew members are safe while the aircraft, Airbus 320, travelling from Patna to Kolkata via Ranchi, suffered damage in the incident, people aware of the development said.
“An IndiGo flight suffered a bird hit near Ranchi. It was approximately 10 to 12 nautical miles away from here, at about 3,000 to 4,000 feet altitude, when the incident occurred. The IndiGo flight was coming from Patna to Ranchi, and the pilot had to make an emergency landing here,” a senior airport official said.
Officials said all the passengers are safe, but the aircraft suffered a ‘dent’ after the bird hit, probably by a vulture. Engineers are assessing the damage, an official said.
Officials said the bird hit occurred as the flight was preparing for its landing at Ranchi, scheduled at around 11.55 am. The pilot decided to abort landing and kept hovering in the sky to assess the impact and then connected the authorities for the emergency landing, which was carried out successfully, an official said.
People familiar with the matter said the bird hit dented the external body near the nose of the flight. While a few passengers were shifted into another flight for their onward journey to Kolkata, a few others would fly out on Tuesday, the people said.
{{/usCountry}}People familiar with the matter said the bird hit dented the external body near the nose of the flight. While a few passengers were shifted into another flight for their onward journey to Kolkata, a few others would fly out on Tuesday, the people said.
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