Thomson plane U-turns after ‘bird strike causes two bangs and smoke from engine’

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A Thomson Airways flight has been forced to return to Birmingham airport almost immediately after take-off after a reported bird-strike caused “two bangs and smoke” to came from one of the plane’s engines.

The 737 bound for Paphos in Cyprus returned to the Midlands airport after “short hold immediately after take-off”, according to the Twitter account Flight Alerts.

The account claimed “two bangs and smoke from engine” caused the plane to return to the airport.

A “loud bang” was reportedly heard from the ground, while a subsequent tweet quoted an unnamed passenger as saying that the plane had suffered a “bird strike on take-off causing a bang and smoke from one of the engines”.

A Thomson Airways spokesperson said: "The aircraft returned to Birmingham as a precautionary measure following a suspected bird strike. The plane landed safely for a routine inspeciotn and customers will be on their way as soon as possible."