India: Mumbai-bound Vistara flight grounded after being hit by a bird mid-air

A Vistara flight from Varanasi to Mumbai returned to its origin after being hit by a bird, informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday.

The DGCA said that the aircraft had landed safely in Varanasi and the radome was damaged.

However, the aircraft has been declared aircraft on the ground (AOG).

"The A320 aircraft VT-TNC operating flight UK622 (Varanasi-Mumbai) was involved in an air turn back to Varanasi due to a bird hit. The aircraft has landed safely in Varanasi and the radome is damaged. The aircraft is declared aircraft on ground (AOG)," said DGCA.

Earlier on Friday, an aircraft of Go First returned to Ahmedabad after it suffered a bird strike within a few minutes of takeoff.

On June 20, a Delhi-bound aircraft of the SpiceJet airlines carrying 185 passengers caught fire soon after taking off from the Patna airport and made an emergency landing minutes later due to a bird hit. On the same day, another Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Guwahati returned to Guwahati airport due to a suspected bird hit after the takeoff.

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DGCA had said that such incidents take place on a daily basis, but these occurrences hardly have any safety implications. "On average, about 30 incidents do take place, including go-around, missed approaches, diversion, medical emergencies, weather, technical and bird hits," the top DGCA official told ANI.

"Most of them have no safety implications. On the contrary, they are a sine qua non of a robust safety management system," he added.

A Delhi-bound GoAir aircraft was rejected takeoff from Leh due to a dog on the runway.

• India