This is the moment a passenger jet carrying 185 suffered a bird strike on take off causing flames to shoot out the back of one of its engines.
The SpiceJet Boeing 737-800 was taking off from Patana, India when the port engine caught fire.
A passenger who was sitting just behind the wing showed flames shooting along the side of the aircraft.
The footage shows the aircraft racing down the runway and moments after it took off the engine ingests several birds.
The pilot and the first officer were forced to continue with the take off as they would not have had sufficient runway to safely land and stop.
A clip showed flames surging out of the back of the engine of the 15-year-old aircraft.
A passenger onboard a SpiceJet flight from Patana, India was filming out the port window when they saw the engine catch fire on take off
The pilot shut down the surging engine before returning to Patna airport without further incident. None of the 185 people on board were injured
Due to the engine problem the captain elected to return to Patna where the aircraft landed safely without any injuries to the passengers and crew.
The flight crew shut down the port engine due to the surging flames which could have caused further damage to the aircraft. However, a modern twin-engine passenger jet can happily fly on a single engine.
Investigators from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have launched a probe into the incident, though
The captain decided to return to Patna and passengers breathed a sigh of relief after the aircraft touched down, today (19).
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the plane was struck by a bird before the left engine was shut down.
A Spicejet spokesperson said the crew suspected a bird hit the engine after the take-off.
According to AvHerald: ‘The crew levelled off at about 2,500 feet, shut the engine down and returned to Patna for a safe landing on runway 25 about 20 minutes after departure.
‘India’s DGCA reported an engine ingested a bird and was shut down.
‘The airline reported during rotation for takeoff the #1 engine suffered what the crew suspected was a bird strike. The crew shut the engine down and returned to Patna. A replacement flight is being arranged.’