Air India flight from Colombo to Chennai suffers bird hit; return journey cancelled

CHENNAI: An Air India flight (AI 274) from Colombo to Chennai suffered a bird hit during its journey. The incident was discovered after the aircraft landed safely at the Chennai airport. Following this, the return flight was cancelled.

All 158 passengers on board are safe, officials confirmed. The aircraft, which had arrived from Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, was moved off the runway for inspection soon after landing. During the inspection, damage was found on one of the engine blades, Air India said in a statement.

In a similar incident recently, an Air India flight from Hyderabad was hit by a bird and had to make an emergency landing at Visakhapatnam International Airport. That aircraft was scheduled to return to Colombo with 137 passengers, who were later accommodated on another flight.