Alive bird found in cockpit of Air India Express Bahrain-Kochi flight during cruise

Agencies | New Delhi

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The pilots of Air India Express’ Bahrain-Kochi flight Friday (July 15) found a small bird huddled in the flight deck when the aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet. The Boeing 737 operating as IX-474 landed safely at its destination and then the “bird was taken out of the aircraft and released.” The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is probing this case. 

People in the know say there was a crew change at Bahrain and a new set of pilots and cabin crew were to operate Friday’s flight to Kochi. “An engineer went to the flight deck for checks when the aircraft awaiting crew members was on the ground at Bahrain airport. He noticed a small bird, perhaps a sparrow, in the cockpit. He tried to catch it make it fly away from there,” they said.

However, the scared little bird did not oblige the engineer who then opened the flight deck window for some time so that the little bird may fly away on its own. He retuned after about 10 minutes to the flight deck and the bird was nowhere to be seen in the flight deck or the cabin. The aircraft was then released for the flight to Kochi.

“When the aircraft was cruising to Kochi, the pilots saw the bird in an inaccessible area of the flight deck near the glove compartment where flight manuals are kept. The bird was just sitting there and not trying to fly. The aircraft landed safely at Kochi. Once on ground, our technicians got hold of the bird and released it to safety. This was a very unusual event,” said sources.