Bird hits PIA plane but aircraft lands safely

KARACHI: A Lahore-bound flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suffered serious damage after a bird hit near Lahore on Monday, ARY News reported.

The flight PK-758 was coming from London to Lahore. The Boeing 777 aircraft’s engine number one received considerable damage due to the bird hit.

However, the pilot of the aircraft successfully landed at the airport. Subsequently, the aircraft was grounded for maintenance.

Owing to the negligence of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the incidents of bird strikes have been consistently increasing at airports across the country.

In last seven months, more than 34 planes of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) were affected by bird strikes which caused millions of rupees loss to the national flag carrier, sources had said.

Out of 34 planes, eight were severely damaged, sources added.

Most incidents of bird strikes were reported at Karachi and Lahore airports, wherein 15 and 11 PIA planes were affected, respectively.

Moreover, two cases were reported from Sukkur, Peshawar and Quetta airports each while one was reported from Islamabad airport.

Such incidents have badly disturbed flight schedules.

Lately, seven Lahore-bound flights were diverted to land in different cities as a huge flock of birds was hovering over Allama Iqbal International Airport.

The presence of birds flocks in the Lahore airport vicinity had severely affected the flight operations.