Qantas Airbus A330 bird strike on take-off at Perth Airport, airline immediately starts passenger care

On 6 September, a Qantas Airbus A330 (VH-EBE) was scheduled to fly QF772 from Perth to Melbourne, Australia. During take-off, the outside casing of one of the engines was hit by a large bird, thought to be an eagle. The aircraft safely returned to Perth, fifteen minutes after its initial take-off. 

Engineers inspected the engine, but they quickly confirmed no damage to the engine. The aircraft is still on the ground at moment of writing.

After the unfortunate event, Qantas immediately started passenger care: one of the passengers reached out to Qantas by tweeting: “Hey Qantas, I’m one of the pax (passengers) on QF772 from Perth to Melbourne that got cancelled due to bird strike on takeoff. Wanted to say thank you to the flight crew who did a great job in the air and keeping us informed as we waited to find out whether the plane was safe to fly and also the ground crew at Perth Airport who suddenly had around 400 pax to rebook and get on their way. Everyone did their best for us. Some delay, but could have been much worse. Thanks again for the professionalism and care for safety.”

Adam Ferrier was also on board an received a text just after landing: “On a Qantas plane Hit a bird flying out of Perth. Pilot skilfully flys us back to Perth airport. Still In plane and receive this somewhat odd sms from Qantas”