Flight suspended for hours in Sittwe after bird-feathers surfaced in engine

Narinjara News, 24 February 2022

A Myanmar Airways flight that landed at Sittwe airport on Wednesday had a five-hour halt as some bird-feathers soaked blood were found in one of its engines.

The aircraft is owned by Myanmar International Airlines (E-190) with aircraft no XY- ALU and flight number 8M- 406/7.

The plane, carrying 42 passengers along with five cabin crew, left Rangoon International Airport to Sittwe and arrived here at around 8:30 am.

According to Rakhine Daily News, soon after the plane landed in Sittwe, the pilot inspected its engines and found some feathers with blood in its left unit.

The flight was suspended for five hours and finally it left  Sittwe airport by 2 pm after necessary examinations.

“The authority used the same aircraft for the return journey. For the safety reason, the passengers should have asked to board in a different plane to save their precious time. But we had to follow the directions as we could have lost the tickets otherwise,” said one passenger on social media commenting, “This is the situation going on in Burma.”

Earlier, on 3 November 2021 , an Air KBZ plane carrying 28 passengers from Rangoon collided with a bird while landing at Sittwe airport. It did not turn into any disaster even though its right wing was slightly damaged.