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A bird got a little too close to the wing of a Saudia Airlines Boeing 787-10 on March 3rd and caused significant damage when it was struck on approach to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) from Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED). Amazingly, the pilots and the passengers did not realize the bird strike occurred until after the plane landed.
A six months old Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner (HZ-AR33) suffered bird strike on the left wing leading edge slat while on approach to London (LHR) from Jeddah (JED) via flight SV109 on 03 March 2024.
📸Life in Saudi Arabia#aircraft #aviation #airlines #safety pic.twitter.com/nQlCjT14mm
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) March 6, 2024
Ground crew discovered the bird’s wing in the large hole created in the leading edge slat of the left wing. The wing was splattered with blood and feathers. The six-month-old Boeing 787-10 will now be grounded until the wing can be repaired.
The grounding of this aircraft presents a logistical and operational headache for Saudia Airlines. The plane was only delivered six months ago and was a pivotal addition to Saudia’s fleet with it playing a role to support the airline’s expansion and modernization strategy. Bird strikes are not common and ones that cause this much damage even less so, but when they happen they can take an aircraft out of service for significant periods of time and cost tons in lost revenue.
Anthony’s Take: Saudia might have a grounded aircraft and a loss in revenue, but the poor bird definitely got the worst of it here. Luckily, all onboard were safe and landed without further incident.
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