KATHMANDU, Dec 29, 2014:
A Jet Airways plane with 125 passengers on board made an emergency landing at Kathmandu airport today after a bird flew into its left engine, an aviation official said.
Sparks were seen coming from the plane’s engine before it touched down safely in the Nepalese capital, said the airport’s general manager Birendra Prasad Shrestha.
“No one was hurt,” he said. “Sparks were seen as the plane landed, but the engine did not catch fire.”
The flight had been bound for Kathmandu from the Indian city of Mumbai.
Birds pose a serious safety concern for Kathmandu’s airport, situated close to forested hills.
In 2012, a plane crashed shortly after taking off from the airport when it hit a bird, killing all 19 people on board.
n investigation concluded that the pilot panicked, causing the plane to crash.
In 2009, a US Airways pilot was forced to carry out a dramatic crash-landing in New York’s Hudson River, saving the passengers, after birds flew into the plane’s engine.