Go First flight suffers bird hit, lands safely at Patna airport

PATNA: The Go First's Bengaluru-Patna-Delhi flight (G8-274) with 142 passengers and six crew members on board suffered a bird hit but landed safely at Patna airport on Tuesday. Owing to the incident, the departure of the flight (G8-144) for Delhi was cancelled.
The aircraft was grounded at the Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport for detailed inspection and repair work. A technical team from Delhi was attending to the problem.
The airline said the incident took place shortly before landing of the flight at Patna airport. "The Airbus A-320 aircraft landed safely and all the passengers de-boarded on arrival at 11.38am. The damage was observed after the flight landed. The subsequent flight was impacted as the aircraft had been declared unfit for departure to Delhi," an airline executive said.
"During the inspection, the engineering team found a depression on the slide of the right wing of the aircraft. The airline said that the bird hit might have taken place during landing but the damage was seen by the engineers following close inspection and evaluation of the aircraft. There was no damage to the engine. While keeping safety as the topmost priority, its further journey has been aborted," a senior official at the Patna airport said.
Around 170 passengers were supposed to board the flight from Patna for Delhi. However, the flight cancellation irked them. Many vented their anger on social media and shared the video in which passengers were having arguments with officials of the Go First after delay and cancellation of their flight. The airline claimed they tried to accommodate the passengers on another flight.
As per the wildlife strike data, the city airport has witnessed six bird hit cases in 2019-2020, while it was 14 in 2018-19 and six in 2017-18.
The Patna airport procured a bird scare machine in recent past, but never installed near the runway to scare away the flocking birds. Presently, the contractors hired by the Airports Authority of India-Patna burst crackers manually to clear the runway for flights.
The district authorities claimed that corrective measures will be taken around the Patna airport premises to prevent the flocking of birds.