Collision during climb Brand new Airbus crashes into vulture - plane forced to make an emergency landing
An Airbus belonging to the airline Iberia had to make an emergency landing after a large bird crashed into its nose. There were 182 people on board.
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- Shortly after take-off, a vulture apparently crashed into the nose of an Iberia Airbus.
- The plane with 182 passengers on board had to turn back and land in Madrid.
- The Airbus A321XLR aircraft was brand new.
A scary moment for the passengers on an Iberia flight from Madrid to Paris: a collision with a large bird forced the plane to return to Adolfo Suárez Airport a few minutes after take-off, according to the Spanish airline.
According to media reports, 182 passengers were on board. According to Iberia, they were not in danger at any time. Several media report that the bird was a vulture.
The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon. According to the airline, the brand-new Airbus A321XLR, which had only been in service for a few weeks after delivery at the beginning of July, was hit and damaged in the front section and on one of the engines immediately after the start of the climb shortly after 4 pm.
Bird strikes are anything but rare
The crew acted immediately in accordance with the applicable safety protocols and initiated a safe return, emphasized Iberia. Nevertheless, some passengers experienced anxious moments during the safety landing, as a video posted on social media by one of the passengers, musician Giancarlo Sandoval, shows. In less than a day, the video has been viewed around two and a half million times on X alone.
Such bird strikes are relatively common in airspace, emphasized Madrid air traffic controller Juan Gómez in an interview with TV station RTVE. However, they are not always collisions with large birds in this case. However, the impact was less severe "than it may appear in pictures", explained Gómez. "The front part of airplanes is always made of very light material because that's where the weather radar is located, which can be used to determine whether severe weather is imminent."
"Birds are a known and controlled risk in the aviation industry. Airports use various measures to control wildlife in order to reduce their presence near the runways," wrote the Spanish specialist portal "Aviacionline". "Nevertheless, collisions cannot be completely avoided."
According to the portal, the approval of jet engines includes "rigorous bird capture tests to ensure that even in the event of a failure, the engine can be safely shut down - without jeopardizing the structural integrity of the wing or the aircraft".
