Jet returns, fuel dumped after airport bird strike

Press, 30 July 1985, Page 1

Jet returns, fuel dumped after airport bird strike

An Air New Zealand Boeing 747 hit a flock of birds while taking off from Christchurch Airport yesterday, causing flames to belch from one of its engines and forcing it to dump fuel and return to Christchurch.

The aircraft, with 350 passengers on board, was leaving for Melbourne when the double bird strike occurred, damaging two of the Boeing’s four jet engines. Emergency vehicles raced to the airport as services were put on alert. The aircraft landed safely. Air New Zealand’s regional airport manager, Mr Kevin Costello, said that the aircraft’s captain shut off the port outer engine and partly shut off the starboard inner engine after the bird strike. The aircraft flew over Pegasus Bay and dumped some fuel-before returning, 40 minutes after taking off. Mr Costello said the fuel was dumped to reduce the aircraft’s landing weight, and not because of a fire hazard. Flight TESS was earlier delayed for an hour, until 4.35 p.m., before the incident occurred. Mr lan Feaver was on the airport observation deck watching the aircraft take off when he heard a loud banging as it hurtled down the tarmac. “It was like shotguns

going off. The earth was vibrating,” he said. He then saw flame shoot from the starboard inner engine. He estimated the flame was a chain long. The noise and flames stopped before the aircraft lifted off the runway, he said. The aircraft ascended slowly, its nose almost horizontal, said Mr Feaver. It flew at low level in a straight line for about four minutes before banking left towards the sea. Mr Feaver’s daughter, Shona, aged 23, was on the aircraft. He said she had been apprehensive about the flight before boarding. “I was a very frightened father,” he said. Passengers were kept on board the aircraft and given a meal after it returned at 5.13 p.m. Another Boeing 747 was flown down from Auckland, and the passengers were taken on the replacement aircraft to Melbourne at 11.45 p.m. Relatives and friends of the passengers were unable to see them between flights, as they were kept in a customs holding lounge

after leaving the disabled Boeing at 8 p.m. Altogether 24 fire, police and ambulance vehicles, as well as airport emergency tenders, stood by at the airport during the drama. Traffic officers manned intersections between the airport and Christchurch Hospital. Air New Zealand’s southern regional manager, Mr Paul Bowe, said that a full statement about the cause and effect of the accident would be made today once engineers had finished examining the engines. The crew were not available for comment last evening as they were to fly the replacement aircraft to Melbourne, said Mr Bowe. The bird strike occurred 15 months after the Waimairi District Council rubbish tip in Sawyers Arms Road was closed. The tip was blamed for the high number of bird strikes in the past by aircraft using Christchurch Airport. In the three months before the tip was closed on April 2, 1984, pilots using

the airport reported 43 strikes or near misses. The tip had been gazetted the previous year by the Government so that bird abatement regulations could airport’s director, Mr Hugh McCarroll, said last evening that he as not aware of any reports of bird strikes since December when he became director.

The problem had declined since the rubbish tip had closed. Land round the airport was fanned by the airport authority to discourage birds in the area. Mr McCarroll said there were always some birds near the airport, but not in the numbers seen when the tip was open. A report to the Christchurch City Council’s airport and electricity committee earlier this year showed bird numbers were declining, Mr McCarroll said.