Bird strike sparked emergency landing at Inverness Airport, KLM confirms
An emergency landing at Inverness Airport yesterday was caused by a bird strike, airline KLM has confirmed.
The airline’s KLC901 flight into Inverness Airport from Amsterdam, which had been due to land at midday on Thursday, was forced to abort its initial landing attempt less than 400ft above the ground before carrying out a ‘go around’. After aborting its first attempt, it climbed back up to 5000ft and circled round over Inverness and the Black Isle before landing safely at the second time of asking, roughly 15 minutes later.
Pilots declared an emergency in the wake of the bird strike, and emergency services were called to the airport.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service sent three appliances and a heavy rescue unit, while the Scottish Ambulance Service reported that it deployed one ambulance to the scene. But all of the responders were stood down without being needed after the airliner landed safely at 12.17pm.
Confirming the cause of the emergency in a statement released this morning, a KLM spokesperson said it was sending engineers to the airport to assess the aircraft before it returns to service.
“KLM Cityhopper can confirm that flight KLC901 suffered a bird strike on landing into Inverness Airport,” they said.
“Engineers are being flown in from Amsterdam to assess the situation. Affected customers are being rebooked on alternative flights.”
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