MIAA probes bird strike at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) is investigating a bird strike incident involving a China Airlines jet after a dead bird was found on one of the plane’s wings when the aircraft landed yesterday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City.

Investigators of the MIAA and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) inspected the China Airlines Boeing 747 flight CI 702 after a dead bird was found embedded in the flap of the plane’s left wing after landing yesterday morning, forcing the pilot to cancel its return flight to Taipei, Taiwan.

Airport sources said that the 190 passengers of flight CI 702 were rebooked on the next available flight while others were accommodated at a local hotel.

Photo by RUDY SANTOS

Flight CI 701 from Taipei landed at 9:29 a.m. and the return flight to Taiwan was scheduled to take off around 10:35 a.m. but it was canceled due to the incident.

Airline operations were hampered due to past bird strikes, causing the loss of millions of dollars in revenues and cost of replacing damaged parts of the planes.

A recent Cebu Pacific flight from Legaspi City was also hit by a bird strike, causing the return flight’s cancelation and inconvenience to passengers.

MIAA and the airlines maintenance personnel are investigating the latest incident to determine where the bird strike occurred by analyzing the size, origin and species of the dead bird.