The incident took place at 9.30 am Thursday, when captain of the Hyderabad-bound Kingfisher flight IT802 reported seeing a flock of kites in front of the aircraft. The flight, with 108 passengers on board, was rolling in for take-off at the time. Within seconds, one kite hit the aircraft engine and the plane jerked to a stop.

No one was reported injured but officials said increased “bird activity” thereafter stalled operations on main runway for 20 minutes till 10.05 am.

On June 14, a Kingfisher flight carrying Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was aborted following a bird-hit.

DIAL corporate communication official Arun Arora, however, said: “No bird remains or bloodstains were found during mechanical inspection of the aircraft. The pilot suspected a bird-hit and decided to abandon take-off as a safety measure.”

Kingfisher, though, stuck to its stand: that a bird-hit grounded the plane, left the engine damaged and tyres deflated. “DIAL does not own our aircraft,” a senior Kingfisher official said. “Our mechanical inspection proves the engine was damaged by bird-hit. Our captain had also reported seeing a flock of kites.”

Aviation experts say a flock of birds is more dangerous as multiple strikes can completely paralyse an aircraft. Eighty per cent of bird-hits in India are caused by kites.

“We arranged a different aircraft for the passengers. A bird-hit aircraft remains out of commission for a couple of days,” Kingfisher spokesperson Prakash Mirpuri said. The substitute flight took off at 11.06 am.

“Most bird-hits during the monsoon are reported in morning hours. Dead insects, attracted by runway lights in the night, pull in birds,” said Gurcharan Bhature, director-general, Foundation for Aviation and Sustainable Tourism.

DIAL’s Arun Arora, meanwhile, said bird-hit rate has decreased at IGI over the past two years. “We have a special bird hazard control team and our follow-me vehicles are also equipped with machines that make sound of predatory animals to scare birds,” he said. “We have employed bird chasers, too.”

Animal farm at IGI
June 14: Varanasi-bound Kingfisher flight IT-331 with Lalu Prasad, wife Rabri Devi and 70 others on board forced to land soon after take-off after hit by bird
June 16: Secondary runway shut for nearly 50 minutes from 9 am after 5 monitor lizards spotted
* In past one month more than 3 cobras, 2 jackals, 10 monitor lizards, 1 civet cat and 1 rat snake rescued from IGI

How others handle birds