The Polish Ryanair subsidiary Buzz suffered a bird strike with a Boeing 737-800 during take-off at Vienna-Schwechat Airport on Friday. The left engine was damaged, so that the medium-haul jet had to make a safety landing at Vienna-Schwechat Airport.
Buzz was en route to Liverpool on behalf of Ryanair on flight number FR9757. However, a bird crashed into the left engine so that the SP-RSK could not continue its journey. In such cases, it is mandatory to land as soon as possible. Since the Boeing 737-800 had quite a bit of fuel on board, the captain first had to burn some of it in order to be able to land safely.
The SP-RSK therefore circled for around an hour before it was possible to touch down safely at Vienna-Schwechat Airport shortly after 18:00. All passengers and crew were able to exit the Boeing 737-800 safely. Ryanair Engineering technicians are now taking a close look at the left engine and the aircraft. If necessary, replacement or repairs are necessary.
For safety reasons, the works fire brigade at Vienna Airport was also involved. This is a common process. Despite intensive efforts, bird strikes cannot be avoided and are not only annoying for airlines, but also costly. Commercial aircraft are designed so that they can also fly with only one engine, but it is mandatory to land as quickly as possible. In some cases, however, circling is still necessary, if the fuel weight would be too high and a landing would otherwise be unsafe.
The passengers were then taken to the D-bus gates at Vienna Airport in an apron bus. Shortly after 20:00 p.m. they were called again for boarding. The Liverpool flight was then carried out by the Buzz sister company Lauda Europe with the Airbus A320 with the registration 9H-LMT.