A Single Bird Is The Reason Air Malta’s Brand New Plane Has Been Grounded For Over A Week
One single bird is the reason 24 blades were damaged on AirMalta’s new Airbus A320neo, which still remains grounded one week after a bird strike incident.
The Air Malta flight was set to take off from Malta International Airport and head to Palermo when a bird (most likely a pigeon) flew into one of its jet engines and forced the brand new aircraft to land and the airline to cancel the flight.
The extent of the damage the single bird caused to the new aircraft was revealed earlier today during media access to the engineering hangar and it’s way worse than we thought…
A company engineer said that out of 36 titanium fan blades, 24 were permanently damaged.
“The whole engine had to be removed and is now being replaced,” engineer Stephen Grech told MaltaToday. He also noted how it was likely that one fan blade was damaged by the bird, but since the aircraft was going at full speed, the damaged blade caused further damage to the rest of the blades.
The entire bathroom of the aircraft had to be pulled apart so repairs could be made.
Photos: Screenshots from a MaltaToday video
There are currently two Air Malta Airbuses that are grounded and are being repaired due to the damage caused; the one struck by the bird and another which was damaged in Gatwick by a jetty bridge.
Grech couldn’t comment on the expenses incurred to the airline as negotiations were still taking place, but having two aircraft grounded – including a brand new Airbus A320neo – is bound to be a costly situation for Air Malta.
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