Last week, a British Airways Boeing 777-300ER collided with a bird when it landed in Lagos, Nigeria. The multiple impacts led to problems such as hydraulic leakage, causing smoke to come out of the aircraft’s landing gear. However, the response from the emergency services was considered to be quite slow.
The flight in question
British Airways flight BA75 is a scheduled service from its London Heathrow base to Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Nigeria. The UK flag carrier operates this flight daily, with departure scheduled for 11:05 local time. The arrival in the most populous city in Nigeria (and indeed in Africa) is scheduled to take place just over six and a half hours later, at 18:40 local time.
BA operates this flight using the Boeing 777 -200ER and -300ER variants. The other British airline Virgin Atlantic offers competition on the route. The cargo operations of Ethiopian Airlines Cargo are also present along this corridor.
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What happened?
FlightRadar24.com reports that, on December 30, flight BA75 left London more than an hour late. Heathrow runway 27R took off at 12:21 pm local time, about 86 minutes late. However, the flight managed to make a good time on the route. In fact, he landed in Nigeria just half an hour late, at 7:10 pm local time, after five hours and 50 minutes in the air.
However, this does not mean that the flight went without incident. According to The Aviation Herald, the aircraft suffered several bird strikes during its landing on the longest runway in Lagos, 18R. This resulted in a hydraulic leak. Fortunately, the crew managed to land the aircraft safely and clear the runway as planned.
However, when taxiing from the runway to its stand, the aircraft lost the direction of the nose wheel. There was also a problem with the main landing gear, with smoke coming out of it. In addition, the aircraft’s hydraulic system C indicated zero quantity. That meant it was completely drained of its hydraulic fluid.
After these problems, the crew decided to stop the aircraft on the taxiway and declared PAN PAN on the radio. However, despite trying to make contact several times, initially there was no response from the emergency services.
Finally, 11 minutes after landing, two firefighters arrived on foot to the aircraft with hand extinguishers. They were followed five minutes later by a larger fire truck. It was then established that the smoke emanating from the landing gear had been caused by the dripping of hydraulic fluid on the aircraft’s brakes. Having just landed, they were very hot.
The aircraft involved
The aircraft that suffered the shock of birds was a Boeing 777-300ER, which has the registration G-STBE. According to Planespotters.net, British Airways received delivery of this aircraft in December 2011. It is one of the 14 777-300ERs in BA’s fleet, along with 43 examples of the minor -200ER variant. SeatGuru reports that the 777-300ER has a four-class configuration on British Airways. It consists of 14 First open suites, 56 Club World sofa beds, 44 World Traveler Plus seats and 185 World Traveler standard seats.
After temporary repairs to the aircraft, FlightRadar24.com reports that the aircraft left Lagos for London the next morning at 5:03 am local time. Landing at Heathrow was just over five hours late, at 9:59 am. The G-STBE has not yet returned to service after this flight.
What do you think of this incident? Have you ever been on board an aircraft involved in a collision with birds? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.