SriLankan Airlines plane suffers bird hit while approaching Trichy airport

TRICHY: A Srilankan Airlines plane -- that was grounded here for several hours after suffering a bird hit on Sunday morning -- took off in the early hours of Monday with 40 passengers on board.
The plane with 146 people on board suffered a bird hit minutes before its scheduled landing at Trichy International Airport at 8.40am on Sunday.
The pilot, who sensed a glitch in an engine of the plane, alerted the air traffic control room. Fire tenders and other equipment were stationed near the runway.
Passengers were evacuated immediately after the plane made a safe landing here.
Later, a team from Colombo arrived here and repaired the aircraft.
The flight, which was to take off at 9.40am on Sunday, had been grounded here for around 18 hours.
As the flight got delayed, 40 passengers cancelled their trip while 62 others were sent to Colombo in another flight on Sunday. Others left in the early hours of Monday after the glitches in the aircraft were fixed.