Indigo A21N at Gorakhpur on Jan 11th 2026, bird strike

Last Update: January 12, 2026 / 19:43:17 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 11, 2026

Classification
Incident

Cause
Bird strike

Airline
Indigo Airlines

Flight number
6E-437

Departure
Gorakhpur, India

Destination
Bangalore, India

Aircraft Registration
VT-IMR

Aircraft Type
Airbus A321-Neo

ICAO Type Designator
A21N

An Indigo Airbus A321-200N, registration VT-IMR performing flight 6E-437 from Gorakhpur to Bangalore (India) with 216 people on board, was climbing out of Gorakhpur's runway 11 when a bird impacted the aircraft's nose. The crew stopped the climb at FL160 and decided to divert to Varanasi (India) where the aircraft landed safely on runway 27 about 30 minutes after departure. The aircraft received dents and cracks to its radome.

The remainder of the flight was cancelled.

The aircraft is still on the ground in Gorakhpur about 30 hours after landing.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 11, 2026

Classification
Incident

Cause
Bird strike

Airline
Indigo Airlines

Flight number
6E-437

Departure
Gorakhpur, India

Destination
Bangalore, India

Aircraft Registration
VT-IMR

Aircraft Type
Airbus A321-Neo

ICAO Type Designator
A21N

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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