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Iberia flight IB 579 from Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) to Paris Orly Airport (ORY) was struck by a bird upon takeoff and was forced to return to the airport. The radome (the aircraft’s nose cone) suffered extensive damage with parts of it falling off of the Airbus A321XLR.
The bird first struck the radome before being pulled into the left hand engine and damaging the fan blades. The aircraft was taken out of service and towed away about 25 minutes after landing. The aircraft is only two months old and will need to be repaired and inspected before returning to service. No passenger or crew were reported as seriously injured during this ordeal. A flight attendant needed to be treated for smoke inhalation and a few passengers needed assistance for their panic attacks.
A spokesperson for Iberia released the following statement:
A few minutes after taking off from Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, flight IB579 bound for Paris was struck by a large bird on the front section of the aircraft and on one of its engines. In accordance with the established safety protocols for such situations, the captain requested authorization to return to the departure airport, where the aircraft landed safely. As a result of the incident, one cabin crew member was treated for smoke inhalation and several passengers required assistance on the ground due to anxiety attacks. he entire flight crew, including pilots and cabin crew, acted with the utmost professionalism to manage the situation and care for the passengers.”
Anthony’s Take: Thankfully, no one was hurt (aside from the poor bird) and the pilots did a great job of safely landing the aircraft. Iberia flies to Paris many times a day, so passengers had ways to be accommodated and Iberia added an extra segment to assist as well.
(Featured Image Credit: @aviationbrk via X.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
“Yikes! A two-month-old plane taken out by a bird strike—that’s some seriously bad luck. Glad everyone was okay, but that engine damage sounds nasty. Hopefully the repairs go smoothly (and that poor bird was the only one involved). Always wild to think how much power these incidents have to ground a brand-new jet!”