A Nepal Airlines Airbus 320 has been grounded at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu after a bird hit during landing on Thursday night.

The NA aircraft (9N-AKW) had taken off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with 158 passengers onboard.

The narrow body aircraft named Sagarmatha was scheduled to fly to Dubai, UAE with 143 passengers yesterday night itself. As the maintenance following the incident took longer than anticipated the stranded passengers are being flown to their destination in another flight, an official at Nepal Airlines Corporation said.

“The airframe of the aircraft’s left wing has sustained damages by the bird hit,” a source with knowledge about the matter said, “The pilots seemed to have missed the incident.”

Captain Bijay Lama was the main pilot and ArbindPahadi and AnupManandhar were co-piloting the aircraft.

According to the NAC official, the incident came to light only during post landing check when engineers found a hole in the wing of the aircraft.

Meanwhile, NAC General Manager Sugat Ratna kansakar informed that the plane will remain grounded until repair works are done after consulting the extent of damages with the Airbus.