Mumbai-bound Vistara flight returns to Varanasi after bird hit

A Mumbai-bound Vistara flight returned to Varanasi after it suffered a bird hit, Aviation regulator DGCA said.

Vistara 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 with and the radome is damaged. It has been declared aircraft on ground (AOG), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.

In a statement, a spokesperson of the private carrier said: "Vistara flight UK 622 operating from Varanasi to Mumbai on August 5, 2022 turned back to Varanasi due to a bird strike during departure. Due to a maintenance inspection of the aircraft being required, another aircraft has been sent from Delhi to Varanasi to fly the passengers to Mumbai. It has been our constant endeavour to minimise inconvenience to our customers in such unavoidable situations whilst keeping safety as our topmost priority."

This is the second such incident of bird hit. A Go First flight operating from Ahmedabad to Chandigarh was diverted to Ahmedabad after a bird hit on Wednesday.

Multiple incidents of technical snags and diversion of flights have been reported in the last few weeks. As per government data, a total of 478 technical snags related occurrences were reported in the planes in the last one year between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.