Ummm .....
QUOTE
An Air New Zealand 737-300 with 115 people on board landed safely at Dunedin International Airport this evening following bird strike shortly after take-off.
... the pilot of the 737-300 radioed Dunedin control tower about 20 minutes into the outbound Wellington/Auckland flight initially declaring an engine had failed.[/quote]
Ok, two things ...
1 - is 20 minutes into a Wellington / Auckland flight "shortly after takeoff" ? Wouldn't the plane have been pretty much at cruise alt by then ? What on earth sort of bird lives up there ???
2 - Precautionary landing at Dunedin after taking off from Wellington heading for Auckland - that's one heck of a SID !!
[edit - Oh, wait, the Herald says it was a Dunedin / Wellignton flight. That makes more sense ...]
Gary
Posted:
Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:03 pmby FlyingKiwi
The Aviation Herald report states that the aircraft landed 20 minutes after departure, which I'm inclined to find more believable than the actual bird strike being 20 minutes after departure.
That said, airliners have hit birds while in the cruise before, so it's not impossible. Probably not likely in New Zealand though.
