Dublin-bound Ryanair flight diverted after bird strike

A Ryanair flight to Dublin returned safely to Barcelona this morning after a bird strike caused an engine shut-down shortly after take-off.

A statement issued by the airline this afternoon confirmed that Ryanair flight FR6874 returned to Barcelona following the incident.

News of the incident broke at about 10.46am when airline monitoring websites planefinder.net and flightradar24 picked up a 7700 code that was issued by the aircraft’s onboard transponder.

This four digit code helps air traffic controllers identify what the problem is and according to an international table of codes, 7700 is a special purpose code that represents an emergency.

The aircraft, which has the call sign RYR707R, remained at a low altitude for a period before changing course and returned to Barcelona a short time later.

It is not clear how many passengers were on the 189-seat Boeing 737-8AS.

Ryanair said the aircraft landed normally and passengers boarded a replacement aircraft to continue their journey to Dublin.

“Ryanair apologised sincerely to all passengers affected by this delay.”