An aircraft had to use another runway to take off from an airport in southern Vietnam as the pilot discovered a flock of birds at the end of the accustomed runway on Thursday.

The incident happened at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City at 8:30 am, when Korean Air’s Airbus A330 aircraft was preparing to conduct flight KE686 from the southern city to South Korea’s Seoul.

While the plane was running on taxiway S1 toward runway 25L to take off, the plane’s pilot detected a flock of swallows at the end of the runway, so he reported his finding to the air traffic control unit.

After verification, the airport authority ordered to suspend operation of the runway for safety reasons.

The aircraft then moved to the runway 25R for takeoff.

Over an hour later, the unit in charge of the flight area drove away the flock of birds, restoring normal operation of the facility.

In aviation activities, collision between birds and aircrafts, known as a bird strike, may cause damage to aircraft components or engines, even a crash, leading to possible fatal accidents.

Many bird strikes have been recorded for both fighter and civil aircraft in the world, and such a collision will be very dangerous if it happens at the plane’s engines.

Therefore, bird strike reports are among the 10 types of mandatory safety reports required by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), said Boeing 787 captain Phan Xuan Duc.

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