Eagle sucked into plane's engine
Published on: Friday, December 10, 2004
Tawau: A Malaysia Airlines (MAS) aircraft experienced a slight jolt when an eagle got sucked into one of its engines while landing at the Tawau Airport upon arrival from Kota Kinabalu, Thursday.The Boeing 737 aircraft landed safely with 54 passengers on board flight MH2121 to meet its scheduled arrival at 7am.However, the 7.40am scheduled departure of flight MH2122 by the same aircraft with 95 passengers for Kota Kinabalu had to be delayed to allow a maintenance crew from the State Capital conduct repairs and cleaning of the affected engine.
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The aircraft finally took off at 10.45am with 90 passengers for Kota Kinabalu. The other five passengers left by another flight at 9.45am as they were booked for connection with other sectors.According to Malaysia Airport Berhad (MAB) personnel here, Petrus Inggit, there was no serious damage but acknowledged that the increasing number of eagles of the Brahminy kites species, highlighted by Daily Express recently, were a nuisance to aircraft frequenting the airport. He believed the phenomenon was due to the large colony of rodents and monitor lizards in the surrounding oil palm plantations.
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He said this was the second such incident this year, the first being on Aug. 16 when an eagle got sucked into an engine as a Boeing 737 jet aircraft was about to take off from the Tawau runway with 106 passengers on board, during a scheduled departure at 7.40am.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Petrus also said MAB had also applied to allow its personnel to shoot down the birds, thereby complementing the department's efforts.
