Kathmandu, November 18:

Buddha Air’s plane that arrived here from Janakpur yesterday at Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) suffered a bird-hit, causing damage to the plane’s left wing and forcing the craft’s operation to be temporarily stalled. “The bird-hit has caused slight damage to the Beech 1900 AEE’s left wing which will be fixed soon and we will resume its operation by Monday,” said Rupesh Joshi, sales and marketing manager of Buddha Air. Despite its aircraft being temporarily grounded, Buddha Air is continuing its regular scheduled operation. “Our domestic operation is running smoothly without any problems but we haven’t been able to add extra flights following Cosmic Air’s termination of domestic flights,” he said. The airline, however, plans to add extra flights once the aircraft’s technical problem is fixed. Pointing out that this is the third time that Buddha Air has been affected by the bird-hit menace, Joshi urged the Civil Aviation Authorities of Nepal to find a solution to the problem plaguing the TIA. It definitely poses risks to both domestic and international aircraft, he added.