ISLAMABAD - Private Airplane barely escaped an accident on Monday morning after it was struck by a bird moments after taking off.
According to details, an Airblue’s flight PA-401 was hit by a bird after it took off from the airport. The pilot, however, successfully landed it back at the airport, where it was grounded for repairs and maintenance.
The engineers cleared the plane after a detailed inspection.
The abundance of birds in the surrounding areas of the airport is a long-standing issue. The CAA officials, after every failed attempt, have now sought bird shooters to scare them away.
Bird shooters use various tricks to create a distraction, such as shooting blanks in the air, using firecrackers or patrolling the runway.
Effective measures are the need of the hour because, in recent months, various bird strike incidents have been reported, which not only disturb the flight schedule at the airport but also damages the planes.
In the past seven months alone, over 36 PIA planes have been hit by birds, which has led to losses in millions of rupees to the national airline, sources said. The sources further added that 8 of the planes were heavily damaged.