The flight carrying the Australian and Indian cricket teams to Mumbai had to make a precautionary landing back at the Nagpur airport on Monday morning, after it was hit by a bird on the runway before take-off.

Although the flight captain assured everyone that there was no cause for concern and that the flight was returning to Nagpur purely as a precautionary measure, there was palpable tension until the aircraft landed safely back on ground.

Jet Airways flight 9W 112 left on schedule at 8:55 am, but passengers heard a huge noise just before take-off. The captain came on air a while later to announce that the plane’s right engine had been hit by a bird, and that they would be heading back to the Nagpur airport. It was apparent by then that the plane was experiencing some difficulty in gaining height.

Passengers had to stay put in the stationary plane for 30 minutes while the damage to the aircraft was being assessed. They were asked to disembark and informed that the flight was rescheduled for 2:15 pm.
The players went back to their hotel frustrated, though surprisingly, Sreesanth seemed least bothered about the inconvenience. The paceman engaged himself in conversation with a little boy, who seemed to have all the statistics of the bowler on his fingertips!

Given the amount of damage done to the plane, the airline had little option but to fly out an aircraft from Mumbai to ferry the stranded passengers. While the Australian team was present in full strength, not all Indian players were on board. Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik had left for Mumbai the previous night.

Nevertheless, Monday was only a ‘travel day’ for the players. There was no disruption in the training schedules of either team, ahead of the final one-dayer in the seven-match Future Cup series in Mumbai on Wednesday.