Air India Colombo-Chennai flight suffers bird hit, lands safely

An Air India flight from Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo to Tamil Nadu’s Chennai on Tuesday suffered a bird hit, airport authorities told PTI.

Despite the bird hit, the aeroplane landed safely at the Chennai airport and all 158 passengers disembarked safely, authorities said.

The bird hit was detected after the aeroplane touched down at the airport, authorities said.

The aircraft has been grounded, and extensive checks were carried out by the Air India engineers, and the airline officials cancelled its return journey due to the incident, authorities said.

The news of bird hit has come just days after an Air India flight deployed ram air turbine (RAT) in Birmingham in the United Kingdom. The RAT is deployed in emergencies like complete engine failure, hydraulics failure, or electronic system failure. It uses wind to generate power to support the emergency landing.

However, in this case, there was no failure and the RAT deployed on its own even as the aeroplane landed safely without any incident. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has launched an investigation into the incident.

The incidents in Chennai and Birmingham are the latest in the long line of incidents that have plagued Indian aviation this year. There have been fires, runway incidents, and crashes.

In June, a London-bound Air India flight crashed minutes after taking off from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad airport. The aeroplane crashed into a medical college nearby. A total of 261 people —230 passengers, 12 crew, and 19 people on the ground— were killed. Only one person in the aeroplane —a passenger— survived.

After the Ahmedabad crash, an audit by DGCA found 51 safety violations over the past year, including seven ‘Level I’ violations that seriously endanger flight operations and 44 ‘Level II’ violations.