RAWALPINDI: The ‘nose cone’ of an Emirates Airlines plane approaching Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) was damaged after being hit by a bird.

However, the Boeing 777-300 landed safely at its scheduled time, and no one on board the flight was reported injured.

Pilot of flight EK-612, which had 423 passengers including crew members on board, relayed a messaged to air traffic control after the aircraft was hit by a bird.

The aircraft was about to land, and was at about 80 feet, when its nose cone was damaged.

The pilot told air traffic control that he had seen the bird and tried to avoid it.

“The bird’s bloodstains were seen on the damaged area. The nose cone was damaged,” a senior Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) official said. He said such bird hits were a common occurrence at the airport, especially around sunset and after rainfall.

The damage caused an eight-hour delay in the departure of Emirates flight EK-613 to Dubai. The inconvenienced passengers were facilitated in hotels, while others who chose to remain at the airport were served food by airline staff.

The passengers traveling to Dubai were facilitated by a relief flight that arrived from Dubai at about 4am, and flight EK-613 took off at 6pm with the stranded passengers on board.

Emirates Airlines station manager Azfar Ali confirmed the bird strike on flight EK-612.

Ali said that passengers faced an eight-hour delay and later boarded a relief flight arranged from Dubai, which departed at 6pm.

The damaged Boeing 777-300 is being repaired and is expected to fly on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2015

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