An Air India flight from Delhi with 164 passengers aboard suffered a bird strike while landing at Patna on Monday morning, the second such incident involving the airline at the Jay Prakash Narayan Airport in Bihar’s capital in a week.
An inspection after landing confirmed the bird strike, but found no damage to the engine. No flight reported a bird hit the previous evening, they added. The bird strike came amid concerns over increasing avian and animal activity around the airport. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has deployed chasers equipped with firearms and firecrackers to keep birds away from the operational area.
Officials said flight AI 1741 landed safely at 7.43am, even as the airport authorities activated emergency landing protocol and deployed fire and allied services as a precaution. The AI 1741 pilot reported a suspected bird hit near the aircraft’s right turbine while approaching the runway, airport officials said. Officials found the remains of a bat weighing around 1.5kg on the runway during a routine inspection before the start of flight operations on Sunday, people familiar with the matter said.
Because of insects exposed in the process, they said, grass mowing can attract avian species.
Officials said the risk of bird activity tends to increase during the monsoon as grass along the runway grows rapidly. Officials said the meat shops in the Phulwarisharif area surrounding the airport remain a major challenge, potentially attracting birds and posing a continuing safety risk.
In 2025, the government told Parliament that Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport reported the highest number of bird-hit incidents across the country over the past five years.
