Bird strike damages nose of Iberia plane, forces emergency landing
The damaged nose of Iberia flight IB579. (Photo: X/justinbroadcast)
Iberia flight IB579 was forced to make an emergency landing after the plane was hit by a bird strike shortly after taking off from Madrid en route to Paris on Sunday (Aug 3).
The Spanish carrier told aviation outlet AeroTime that the Airbus A321XLR struck a "large bird on the front section of the aircraft and on one of its engines" just minutes after departure.Â
"In accordance with the established safety protocols for such situations, the captain requested authorisation to return to the departure airport, where the aircraft landed safely. The entire flight crew, including pilots and cabin crew, acted with the utmost professionalism to manage the situation and care for the passengers," the airline said.
Viral footage showed oxygen masks deployed, with one passenger breathing heavily through theirs as a baby cried in the background. Photos circulating on social media also revealed substantial damage to the aircraft's nose.
An incident report on the Aviation Safety Network noted that one of the plane’s engines and the nose radome had suffered damage from the bird strike, but the flight landed safely back at Adolfo Suarez Madrid–Barajas Airport.
Bird strikes are a relatively common issue in aviation but rarely result in serious accidents.
In 2024, the United States recorded an average of 54 wildlife strikes per day, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with most involving birds.
About 90 per cent of bird strikes occur near airports - during takeoff, landing, or low-altitude flight - according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Last month, South Korean investigators provided an update on the December 2024 Jeju Air crash, stating that the plane, which crashed during an emergency landing after a bird strike, could have continued flying on the damaged engine that remained operational after the pilots shut down the other one.
The Boeing 737-800 instead belly-landed at Muan airport without its landing gear down, overshot the runway and erupted into a fireball after slamming into an embankment, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.
The most famous bird strike incident occurred in 2009, when a US Airways flight made an emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York after striking a flock of geese. All 155 passengers and crew on board survived.
