Another Plane Returns to Guarulhos Airport After Bird Collides Into Engine

04/28/2016 - 11h00

For the second consecutive day, an airplane had to return to Guarulhos airport, in Greater São Paulo, after being hit by birds.

The incident took place on Wednesday (27) with a Boeing 737-800 belonging to the airline Gol, which took off at 12h52 for Fortaleza, according to data from the Flightradar24 site. The bird entered one of the two motors.

Due to the problem, the plane returned to Guarulhos at 14h34, almost two hours after take off. The delay was due to the fact that the aircraft had to use up fuel in order to land with less weight -the plane takes off with a full tank.

In an official statement, Gol said that flight G3-1900 landed "safely". The passengers, according the company, were removed from the flight and placed on a different company aircraft, which took off at 15h30 on Wednesday evening.

On Tuesday (26), an Airbus A321 belonging to the airline TAM was also forced to return to Guarulhos for the same reason.

Aeronautics registered 1,495 collisions between planes and birds in 2014, the last data available.

The presence of birds in airports is related, among other factors, to the existence of nearby dumpsters.

In a statement, GRU Airport said it is waiting on the evaluation from Cetesb in order to establish an emergency management plan for the critical species of bird identified around the airport.

At the same time, it says it is monitoring the presence of birds on the runways with a dedicated team to reduce the chance of collisions.

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