No major damages were caused when the right engine of the Boeing 777 ingested the bird at around 1:35 this afternoon. The plane was grounded and engineers from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal inspected the plane to assess the damage caused by the bird hit.

Flight TG 320 had arrived from Bangkok.  It was scheduled to fly to Bangkok at 1 pm but flew only on the evening after engineers cleared it for the return flight.

The US-made Boeing 777 is among the largest passenger carrying jet flying to Kathmandu.

Bird strike is a persistent problem at the country’s only international airport with a 52 percent incidence of bird strikes occur in TIA as compared to other airports. According to experts, aircraft are significantly at risk during take-off and landing as 90 percent of birds fly below an altitude of 2,000 ft.

Three months ago, a Jet Airways aircraft had to make the emergency landing after suffering a bird hit on its engine while landing.