Bird strike forces Air Zimbabwe plane to abort take-off

By Tichaona Sibanda
8 May 2008

An Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 with 91 passengers onboard and bound for London’s Gatwick airport, aborted take-off on Thursday in Malawi when two birds were sucked into the engines.

The captain had slammed on brakes, resulting in eight rear tyres bursting into flames. An aviation analyst told Newsreel the aircraft, which had stopped over in Lilongwe to refuel, must have been on its initial stage of take-off when it struck the birds. Because of fuel shortages in Zimbabwe, long haul flights go via Malawi to pick up fuel.

Our source said it was highly probable the captain had applied full throttle power to the engines but had not yet reached take-off speed.

‘I think the plane had just started to roll on the runway when it struck the birds. Otherwise had it reached take-off speed there was no turning back, they would have taken-off and immediately declared an emergency to enable them to fly back straight away and land.’ the analyst said.
Fire fighters managed to put out the fire before it spread to the rest of the plane. Alfred Mtilatila, the chief aviation officer at Kamuzu International airport in Lilongwe, said the incident happened around 8am. He confirmed the plane struck two birds.
‘Nobody was hurt; all the passengers were evacuated to safety. We have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident,’ Mtilatila said.