Virgin Atlantic 787 suffers birdstrike during initial climb


Virgin Atlantic flight VS250 was taking off for Shanghai from London on Friday, May 3rd, when a birdstrike forced the aircraft to turn back. Bad luck for the passengers, and for the bird, but we do have to award the bird a posthumous gold star for incredible aim.

A Virgin Atlantic 787-9 Dreamliner had to abort its flight from London to Shanghai after being hit by a bird. Although birdstrikes are not uncommon in aviation, this one was incredibly unlucky for Virgin.
Of all the places the bird could have hit the plane, he had to pick one of the most fragile. The strike occurred right in the center of the nose cone, which is unfortunately something of a weak spot, and meant that the flight could not continue.

What happened?

On Friday May 3rd, Virgin Atlantic flight VS250 was taking off from London Heathrow to travel to Shanghai. The 787-9 operating the flight, registration G-VZIG, pushed back at 15:38, around 20 minutes behind schedule, and took off as normal.
However, on the climb from the runway the aircraft suffered a serious birdstrike. The bird, species unknown, hit the aircraft square on the nose, denting the nose cone and forcing the crew to turn back. You have to admit, judging by the photo shared by Klaus D. Schinzel on Twitter, that bird had incredible aim.


According to reports on AvHerald, a replacement Dreamliner was dispatched as quickly as possible and the flight landed safely at Shanghai around three hours late. G-VZIG was on the ground for a reported 41 hours getting repairs, but is now showing to be back in service having completed a LHR-LAX return journey yesterday.

SIMPLE FLYING

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