London-bound plane makes emergency landing after hitting ’50 storks’ on take-off

A passenger plane on its way to London was forced to make an emergency landing after colliding with ’50 storks’.

The Thomas Cook Airbus A321 had just taken off from Banjul airport in Gambia when it flew into the path of the flock of birds.

At least 13 of the birds were sucked into the engines.

The blades were bent and the aircraft was splattered in blood when it turned back to Banjul following the collision.

Berkshire-based flight attendant Kayleigh Loveridge wrote about the incident on Facebook, and said that the pilot had to shut down one of the engines in order to make the safe landing.

She said: ‘Tuesday 8th November was not “a typical day in the office”, we took off, and on our climb we went through a flock of approximately 50 storks, causing a bird strike to both engines.

‘Meaning that both engines were damaged and not functioning the way they should have.

‘We heard big bangs, felt the entire aircraft shake, shortly followed by one of our emergency commands from the flight deck.’

A Thomas Cook spokesperson said: ‘The pilots and cabin crew responded extremely professionally according to their training and the aircraft returned safely to Banjul.

‘The customers were accommodated overnight and flown home on a different plane the following morning, while the damaged aircraft was repaired and arrived back in the UK last night.’

Metro Uk