News around the world
Thomsonfly Bird strike
30/ 4/2007
A JET packed with holidaymakers had to make an emergency landing at Manchester Airport after two birds were sucked into an engine during take-off.
The Thomsonfly Boeing 757, with 225 passengers and eight crew members aboard, was heading for Lanzarote when the drama happened.
Smoke was seen coming from the engine and the captain decided to shut it down as a precaution and return to the airport. He had to burn off some fuel before landing on one engine 30 minutes later. The birds involved were believed to be grey herons, which can weigh up to three stones and have a 6ft wingspan.
No-one was injured, but firefighters met the aircraft as a precaution. Four fire engines from the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were also placed on standby.
Flight TOM4263 had taken off at 9am yesterday.
A Thomsonfly spokesman said bird strikes of this sort were 'very rare'.
Smoke
"We must stress that there was no danger to the flight," he said. "There was a little bit of smoke and the captain decided to close the engine. He had to burn off some fuel in the air before he came down to land on a single engine.
"The landing was a routine and safe operation. Our pilots and crew are trained to deal with this sort of situation, and they handled it very well."
The aircraft was checked over by engineers and the passengers were taken back to Terminal 2 to wait for another plane.
They were able to restart their journey late yesterday afternoon.
PLANE similar to the one involved.
See full video... (Youtube.com)
