The crew of a flight departing from Tenerife South to Glasgow yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) requested to turn around and land again after their plane was hit by a bird during take-off, as reported by Air Traffic Controllers on X (Twitter).
Jet2 flight number LS126 was given clearance to return to Tenerife, after circling several times to burn off fuel and lose weight, as a precautionary measure so that the plane could be checked and assessed for damage on the ground instead of continuing its journey.
The flight didn’t get off to a good start and took off almost an hour late because the hold luggage had been scanned incorrectly, so had to be removed and rescanned before it could leave, already causing discomfort for passengers.
After it did eventually depart, the plane touched back down shortly afterwards, due to the bird strike, passengers were disembarked and luggage was removed from the plane for safety reasons while safety checks were carried out on the ground.
In the meantime, passengers were boarded and luggage was loaded onto a standby Spanish crewed Jet2 aircraft at Tenerife South airport, and given a priority slot for departure so they could continue their journey quicker.
Eventually, the plane arrived safely in Glasgow after an incident-free journey following the problems at the start.
