Air India flight suffers ‘suspected bird hit’

An Air India Chennai-Colombo flight carrying 158 passengers suffered a “suspected bird hit” on Tuesday and the plane has been grounded after landing at the international airport here for “extensive checks”, officials said.
The crew of the Colombo bound Air India flight from Chennai reported a “suspected bird strike,” but on its landing in Colombo, engineers found no damage and green signalled the aircraft’s return journey to Chennai.
The aircraft landed safely in Chennai and all the 137 passengers safely disembarked from the plane and engineers here examined the engine again and found an “impact,” on the engine blade, authorities clarified.Following this, the aircraft was grounded and the engineers carried out extensive checks, and its further trip to Colombo was cancelled, and an alternative aircraft was arranged for passengers, officials said. After landing at Colombo, the engineers found no damage, and the aircraft was cleared for operation.