On August 9, KLM flight KL651 originally bound for Washington Dulles had to return back to Amsterdam Schiphol after suffering a pigeon strike after departure.
Information is limited surrounding this incident, but below is what we know on this so far.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
KLM Flight KL651 – Amsterdam to Washington Dulles…
KLLM flight KL651, which suffered the pigeon strike, is a routine scheduled flight between Amsterdam and Washington Dulles.
Furthermore, it is understood PH-AKB was the aircraft involved in the incident.
As per data from Planespotters.net, PH-AKB is a 12.5 year old Airbus A330-300 that was delivered to the Dutch airline in March 2012.
Of the A330-300 variant, KLM has five of them in their fleet.
Moreover, of that five, all of them are in active service, with an average fleet age of 11.8 years.
As well as the A330-300, the airline has the following other aircraft in their mainline fleet:
- 6 Airbus A330-200s.
- 6 Boeing 737-700s.
- 31 Boeing 737-800s.
- 5 Boeing 737-900s.
- 15 Boeing 777-200s.
- 16 Boeing 777-300ERs.
- 23 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
KLM flight KL651, which suffered the pigeon strike, departed Amsterdam Schiphol at 1348 local time on August 9 and initially climbed out towards Washington Dulles.
As per The Aviation Herald, it is understood the crew decided to u-turn back to the airport after a engine part was found on the runway from the strike.
After around an hour and a half, the aircraft landed safely back into Schiphol without further incident.
Aircraft Grounded for Two Days Following the Pigeon Strike…
Following the pigeon strike on KLM flight KL651 Amsterdam-Washington, PH-AKB was grounded for around two days.
The aircraft re-entered commercial service yesterday on flights to Oranjestad & Krallendijk.
Since the incident, no further issues have been reported with the aircraft, and operationally is performing normally.
As soon as we have more information on this, then we will update you accordingly.
Such updates will be placed at the bottom of this article as updates and information comes in.
Click the banner to subscribe to our weekly Emergencies and Incidents newsletter.
Click the photo to join our WhatsApp channel so then you can stay up to date with everything going on in the aviation industry!
