Close shave for passengers of bird-hit flight

Bhubaneswar: Passengers of a Delhi-bound Indigo flight had a close shave when the aircraft was hit by a bird during take-off at Biju Patnaik Airport in Bhubaneswar on Saturday and landed in emergency conditions, officials said.

All the 154 passengers and crew on board were safe after the Hyderabad-Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Indigo flight made the landing in emergency conditions about 30 minutes after take-off, they said.

The pilot of the Airbus A-320 contacted the Air Traffic Control Room immediately after the bird hit and was given green signal to land, they said.

While the bird-hit aircraft was examined by engineers and experts to ascertain if there had been any damage due to the incident, arrangements were made for the passengers to leave for their destination by another plane from Kolkata, airlines sources said.