Scare at Ranchi airport as aircraft suffers bird hit, flight delayed by 10 hrs
A day after the plane crash at Kozhikode airport in Kerala that left 18 people dead, there was scare and chaos at Birsa Munda Airport (BMA) in Ranchi on Saturday after a Mumbai-bound Air Asia flight (I5 632) had to abort take-off after suffering a bird hit and the aircraft had to be grounded after another failed take-off.
Finally, another aircraft arranged by the private carrier from Kolkata took off with the passengers at 9.30 pm, after a delay of nearly 10 hours in the flight.
As the scheduled flight was taking off around 11:45 am, it suffered a bird hit and the pilots aborted the take-off. The cabin crew announced about the snag through public address system and asked passengers to evacuate the plane.
Confirming the incident, BMA director Vinod Sharma said the flight developed minor technical snag which was being attended to by engineers. “There was no damage and all the 176 passengers on board were safe,” he said.
The engineers carried out all mandatory procedures and the flight will take off soon, he said.
However, the aircraft could not take off on the rescheduled timing at 4 pm as some sparks were noticed.
Ranchi airport director Sharma said the plane was taken to runway after re-examination but it failed to take off again, as the technical snag that developed after the bird hit could not be corrected. The passengers were then deboarded and asked to wait in the lounge, he said.
Sharma said Air Asia then agreed to despatch another plane from Kolkata.
The airline spokesperson said all passengers were being attended to and served refreshments by its staff at the Birsa Munda airport.
This is not the first incident of bird hit at Ranchi airport. BMA authorities, in the past, have written to the district administration for shifting temporary meat shops and other food stalls nearby that attract the birds.
Sharma said the airport had got security audit done in March 2020. “There was no problem. However, we carry out regular monitoring to ensure safety.”
There are 30 regular daily flights from the airport that handles around 2.48 million passengers annually in normal times.
However, the passenger volume has shrunk after the coronavirus outbreak. At present, there are 10 regular daily flights from Ranchi.