Plane lands safely after bird strike at Incheon Airport

This photograph shows the TW216 flight after it landed at Incheon Airport on Wednesday, minutes after a bird hit one of its engines. (Yonhap)

A T'way flight was hit by a bird during landing late Wednesday, but the pilots managed to land the aircraft safely in Incheon, the airline said.

The TW216 flight, bound for Incheon from Narita International Airport in Tokyo, had been touching down on a runway at the Incheon International Airport around 9:28 p.m., when a bird was sucked into one of its engines. The pilots aborted the landing temporarily, but were able to land the plane safely some 13 minutes later, T'way Air said.

Small sparks were observed when the engine was struck, and firefighters were dispatched to the runway when airport authorities received reports of a fire. Officials found that no fire actually broke out, and none of the 122 passengers onboard sustained any injuries.

A T'Way official said that the airline will conduct a thorough inspection of the aircraft.

There were a total of 500 bird strikes in South Korea from 2019 to October of last year, according to the data from Korea Airports Corporation and the International Airport, compiled by Rep. Heo Jong-sik of the main opposition Democratic Party. In six of the cases, the flight was forced to divert back to its airport of origin.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)