Karachi-bound flight narrowly escapes crash after bird strike

KARACHI: A plane of a private airline suffered a bird hit while landing at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi and narrowly escaped a crash, ARY News reported on Thursday.

According to details, the private airline’s flight QR610 was carrying 160 passengers from Qatar’s Doha to Karachi when a bird hit its engine.

The pilot informed Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) Air Traffic Control about the bird strike. Meanwhile, the pilot succeeded in landing the plane back at the airport safely.

All the passengers were shifted to the international departure lounge. In a statement, CAA spokesperson confirmed the incident and said no severe damage occurred to plane.

Earlier in September, a Saudi Airline’s passenger plane narrowly escaped a crash after a bird hit its engine while landing at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi.

According to details, the airline’s Boeing 330 flight was carrying passengers from Jeddah to Pakistan when a bird hit its engine. However, the pilot managed to safely land the plane at the airport.

In a statement, the spokesperson of Saudi Airlines stated that a bird hit engine number 1 of the passenger flight, SV 700. The aircraft was grounded temporarily, while the engineering staff began work on its repair to enable it for the next flight, SV 701 (Karachi to Jeddah), which was cancelled.

All passengers, waiting for the next flight, were sent back to hotel after the airline’s management announced its cancellation.