Ryanair Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Bird Strike Damages Engine
A Ryanair Boeing 737-8 flight in Greece had to make an emergency landing after a bird strike damaged one of its engines. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary report on Thursday, stating that evidence of bird remains was found in several parts of the engine structure.
The flight, operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, had 155 people on board, including two pilots and four flight attendants. On July 10, the plane departed from Thessaloniki, Greece, and headed to Memmingen, Germany. However, around 16,000 feet in the air, near the border between Greece and Northern Macedonia, the crew received a high engine vibration indication.
The engine vibrations decreased after the crew reduced engine power but picked up again. The flight crew then heard a loud bang and the plane's autopilot disengaged. They declared an emergency and began an immediate descent back to Thessaloniki.
The NTSB found that one of the engine's two dozen fan blades had fractured and separated, while two other fan blade tips had broken off. The remaining fan blades showed varying levels of deformation. The engine inlet cowl was punctured, and the inboard fan cowl was damaged, with the exhaust nozzle cracked.
The NTSB said that the engine had undergone ultrasonic inspections in November and May, about 250 flight cycles before the incident, but no findings were produced. The FAA issued directives in 2025 requiring enhancements for the fan cowl and exhaust nozzle hardware after two incidents where parts of a plane's engine fan blades broke.