FlyDubai flight from Kathmandu lands safely in Dubai after bird strike causes fire

A FlyDubai flight from Kathmandu to Dubai with over 150 people onboard caught fire in one of its engines shortly after takeoff from Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday (April 24). This prompted authorities to station fire brigade, rescue, and medical teams at TIA. 

The aircraft had returned and hovered over Dharke in Nepal, but the pilots ultimately decided to continue on the flight path to Dubai after ascertaining that all indicators were normal. The plane has since landed in Dubai safely. 

What happened?

• The plane took off from Tribhuvan International Airport at 9.20 am. Soon after social media was flooded with videos of a plane catching fire in one of its engines in Nepal skies. 

• Preparations were made for an emergency landing of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft at TIA, but the issue was resolved. 
• A FlyDubai spokesperson on Twitter said that the flight FZ 576 had experienced a bird strike after taking off from Kathmandu. 

• On Twitter, some people asked whether it was safe to have continued the journey instead of making an emergency landing. 

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Bird strikes and planes

Recently, there have been a few incidents of bird strikes on flights from around the world. 

• A flight carrying the Arsenal women's team from Wolfsburg, Germany to London on Sunday suddenly burst into flames on the runway due to a suspected bird strike. No one was hurt and the take-off was abandoned. 
• On Sunday, an American Airlines plane was forced to return to Ohio after a bird strike set one of its engines on fire mid air. A video is going viral of the plane's engine bursting into flames. Again, no one was hurt. 

Bird strikes aren't unheard of. They are also often reported when the plane is flying at a lower level, usually during takeoff or landing. Moreover, bird strikes are rarely deadly, but nonetheless a serious problem.

• Bird strikes can damage a flight's windscreens, break the flight controls, and result in engine ingestion or damage to the hull if hit at a higher altitude.

• Engine ingestion or when a bird enters the engine is considered to be the most problematic one.  
• Most modern aircraft are built to be able to return to the nearest airport and make an emergency landing even if a bird strike damages both of the engines. 
• Planes running into a whole flock of birds can be even more dangerous than one bird strike.  

While there aren't many incidents where a bird strike resulted in a fatal plane crash, there are a few worrying incidents. In 1988, an Ethiopian Airlines Flight is believed to have crashed and killed 35 passengers after pigeons were sucked into both engines during takeoff. 

Bird strikes do come with heavy damage costs for the aviation industry. According to an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) survey with data from 91 countries, airlines face an average of 34 bird strikes per day and the annual damage was more than $1 billion. 

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