Air India plane used for return flight despite bird strike damaging engine

An Air India plane that suffered a bird strike on the way to Sri Lanka returned to India with passengers before being declared unfit to fly.

Flight AI273, with 158 passengers and six crew members, was flying from Chennai in southern India to Colombo during the early hours of Tuesday when it suffered a bird hit.

A routine check by ground engineers at Colombo’s Bandaranaike international airport revealed a bird carcass lodged in one of the engines.

An initial investigation found the Airbus 320 had been struck by the bird during the landing phase but it was still cleared by Sri Lankan engineers for a return journey to Chennai.

The aircraft departed Colombo at around 3.20am local time with 147 passengers and six crew members. Upon arrival, a team of Air India and Chennai airport maintenance engineers reportedly discovered that the fan blade in one of the engines had suffered damage from the bird hit.

“On 7 October, the flight crew of AI273 operating from Chennai to Colombo, reported a suspected bird strike. After landing at Colombo, the engineers who inspected the aircraft found no damage, and the aircraft was cleared for operation," Air India said.

“The same aircraft operated flight AI274 from Colombo to Chennai as per schedule. Upon routine post-flight checks at Chennai, the engineers observed an impact on an engine blade.”

The Airbus 320 was declared unfit to fly and grounded for further inspections and to ascertain the cause of the damage.

It was towed to a remote parking bay for maintenance and repairs, according to local reports.

The Director General of Civil Aviation later ordered a comprehensive and detailed investigation of the safety breach.