A Jet2 flight from Yorkshire to Crete made an emergency landing in Manchester after a bird strike shortly after take-off – this is a breaking story
A Jet2 flight from Yorkshire was forced to make an emergency landing due to a bird strike shortly after takeoff.
Flight LS443, bound for Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete, departed Leeds Bradford at around 9am on Monday. However, the aircraft struck a bird a short time later, prompting the crew to immediately halt the climb. It landed safely at Manchester Airport at 9.53am.
Alex, from Baildon, told the Yorkshire Post he heard a “very loud bang” on the plane, with an “immediate smell of burning feathers and flesh”.
“We held north of Manchester Airport at 10,000ft for an hour or so as we waited to land,” he told the newspaper.
“Emergency crews met us at the end of the runway [in Manchester] to inspect the engine and landing gear as we landed heavy. We left the aircraft and moved to another A320 at Manchester. We were back in the air by lunchtime.”
Following the strike, the Boeing 737-800 levelled off at around 4,500 feet, with aviation trackers showing the plane circling at low altitude as pilots assessed the extent of the damage.
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