LAHORE: A PIA’s Boeing 777 plane made a successful landing at the Allama Iqbal International Airport here after a bird hit it on Monday.
According to officials, flight PK-758 coming from London was hit by a bird while landing here. The pilot, however, successfully made landing as no human injury was reported.
They said one engine of the plane had been damaged which was repaired by a team of engineers. The plane then left for Dubai after several hours, an official told Dawn.
Last month, the flight operation remained suspended for several hours at the Lahore airport because of the presence of birds on the main runway.
Some 50 or so planes of national and international carriers have been hit by birds in 2019 at different airports of the country, either while landing or take off.
According to statistics, four bird-hit incidents took place in January, three in February, seven in March, eight in April, four in May, five in June, 11 in July and eight in August at different airports of the country.
“The Civil Aviation Authority shooters usually fire gunshots in the air to scare the birds away but still some concrete measures are needed to control the bird-hit incidents. The airlines have to bear a loss of millions of rupees with regard to repair of the damaged aircraft,” the official said.
It is said because of rainy weather a flock of birds landed on the airport premises that caused the problem.
Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2019
