Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane? It's an Internet Flap

Bangkok: A Thai AirAsia plane hit a bird Wednesday during a flight in Thailand, where the word for bird is "nok," sparking social media confusion over whether the aircraft had collided with a plane from budget carrier Nok Air.

Within hours of the collision, Nok Air issued a brief statement on Twitter to set the story straight: "We would like to clarify that Nok Air did not clip another aircraft today." It added that the other aircraft had hit a real bird.

The Airbus A320-200, carrying 151 passengers from Bangkok to southern Nakhon Si Thammarat, landed safely on Wednesday morning but the impact left "a scratch" on the edge of the left wing, Thai AirAsia said in a statement.

The airline's chief engineer, Banyat Hansakul, described the damage as a small hole in the wing.

Engineers inspected and repaired the wing before the aircraft returned to Bangkok after a three-hour delay, the airline said.