Qatar A333 at Istanbul on Aug 18th 2016, bird strike

Last Update: August 20, 2016 / 20:34:07 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Qatar Airways A7-AEO, Airbus A330-300 — Qatar Airways A7-AEO, Airbus A330-300 (Photo credit: Alec BHX/KKC / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Aug 18, 2016

Classification
Incident

Cause
Bird strike

Airline
Qatar Airways

Flight number
QR-240

Departure
Istanbul, Turkey

Destination
Doha, Qatar

Aircraft Registration
A7-AEO

Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300

ICAO Type Designator
A333

A Qatar Airways Airbus A330-300, registration A7-AEO performing flight QR-240 from Istanbul (Turkey) to Doha (Qatar), was in the initial climb out of Ataturk Airport's runway 35L when the left hand engine (CF6) ingested a bird and emitted a series of bangs and streaks of flame (editorial note: indicative of compressor stalls and emission of hot gases from the combustion chamber, however, not indicative of any engine fire) prompting the crew to stop the climb at 3000 feet, shut the engine down and return to Ataturk Airport for a safe landing on runway 35R about 15 minutes after departure.

The fan blades of the engine were badly bent.

The airline reported flight QR240 returned to Istanbul for a safe landing, all passengers disembarked normally.

A replacement A330-300 registration A7-AEM reached Doha with a delay of about 12 hours.

On Aug 20th 2016 The Aviation Herald received information that following the bird strike the crew did not observe any unusual indication like vibrations or abnormal EGT values on the ECAM display, however, passengers advised the crew of seeing flames from the engine. At the same time ground observers issued emergency calls to police reporting the engine on fire. Engine #1 is going to be replaced.

Following query of the information on Aug 20th 2016 the information was amended stating, that the first bang occurred just after becoming airborne prior to gear retraction. Due to the absence of abnormal engine indications the crew assumed a tyre had burst and decided to not retract the landing gear. Subsequently the crew received information from the passengers that the left hand engine was on fire. The bird(s) had not gone into the core of the engine, but went through the bypass however not without leaving damage to the engine inlet, linear panels, fan blades, abradable shroud and outlet guide vanes.