Incident: United B772 over Pacific Ocean on Dec 31st 2015, smoke in cockpit, bird strike on touch down

A United Boeing 777-200, registration N783UA performing flight UA-863 from San Francisco,CA (USA) to Sydney,NS (Australia), was enroute at FL350 about 600nm south of Kona,HI (USA) when the crew reported smoke in the cockpit and decided to divert to Kona. Enroute to Kona the crew changed their destination to Honolulu,HI (USA) advising that they did have smoke and fumes on the flight deck but were now fine again. The aircraft encountered a bird strike just prior to touch down but landed safely on Honolulu’s runway 08L about 90 minutes after the decision to divert. The crew advised no further assistance was needed and taxied to the gate.

The remainder of the flight was cancelled.

A passenger reported that obviously there was some fire, quite obviously there was smoke in the cockpit. The inflight entertainment system and cabin lights went out, an announcement indicated they were diverting to Kona. The fire apparently was put out, the passengers in the forward cabin were distributed to the aft cabin with cabin crew telling them the seats in the forward cabin could no longer be put upright for landing. Some time later the crew advised that they were now diverting to Honolulu.

Credit: Aviation Herald