Emergency landing for Gran Canaria flight after being struck by a bird

A Vueling flight scheduled to go from Malaga to Gran Canaria, had to return to the Andalusian airport and make an emergency landing after crew reported that the plane had hit a bird shortly after taking off.

The impact happened to flight VY3068 as it was climbing to cruising altitude during the takeoff phase and was heard on board by passengers.

The captain immediately contacted air traffic control (ATC) to request that they return to Malaga so that checks could be carried out on the plane to rule out any significant damage.

ATC instructed him to circle out at sea to the southeast of the airport and burn off fuel while they cleared a path for landing. Fortunately, the Airbus A320 touched down without incident and the relevant checks confirmed that all was ok to continue.

After regulating the air traffic, the flight was able to continue on its way to Gran Canaria without any incident, and without any disruption to flight schedules for other airlines and passengers.