Plane disaster averted, lands safely after bird hit

A mid-air disaster was averted today after a Jet Airways flight with 167 people on board suffered a bird hit, which caused one of its engines to emit sparks and smoke and forced the pilot to abort its scheduled landing in Jodhpur, a senior official said.
The pilot of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft carried out two go-arounds -- flying back up -- and finally landed safely at the Jodhpur civil enclave airport, Jodhpur Civil Enclave Airport Director G K Khare said.
The aircraft is grounded and its return journey has been cancelled by the airline, Khare added.
Jet Airways flight 9W 412 from Mumbai was about to land when it was hit by a bird on its left engine, he said.

"The bird hit caused sparks in the engine and some smoke emanated from it because of the sparks. Having noticed this, the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) informed the pilot about the smoke," he said.
The pilot decided to abort the landing at the last minute and do a go-around instead, he said.

"Later, the plane landed safely once the pilot had ensured that there was no fire in the engine," Khare told PTI.
The aircraft was just about 2-3 nautical miles from the airport when the the bird hit occurred, he added.
Jet Airways confirmed the incident, which took place at around 1330 hours.

"As a precautionary measure, the captain decided to abort the landing and carry out a go-around. There were 167 guests and crew on board the Boeing 737-800 flight," Jet Airways said in a statement.
The flight carried out two circuits in the air before landing safely at 1340 hours after a delay of nearly 10 minutes, Khare said.
Jet Airways engineers during the inspection found traces of a bird on parts of the engine and are assessing the damage, if any, Khare said.