Thomsonfly Flight 4263

On 29 April 2007, a Thomsonfly Boeing 757-204 (registration G-BYAW, operating flight TOM4263) was en-route to Lanzarote when two herons were sucked into the left engine on takeoff from Manchester.
The pilot shut the engine down and sent out a Mayday distress call before dumping excess fuel and landing back at the airport.
A spokesman for Manchester Airport said the engine did not catch fire but the flames were caused by burning of the birds. "Within minutes of being in the air, the plane suffered a double bird strike," he said. "The aircraft's engines are designed to cope with bird strikes but because this case involved two very large birds being sucked in at once, there were problems.”
The incident happened just after 09:15 BST, and the passengers were able to catch another flight at about 13:00.
Social media
The incident was captured by two different planespotters on each side of the airport, and was posted on YouTube. As of July 2014, it has 3,744,310 views.
Aircraft
Although the aircraft suffered a major bird strike, it is still in operation - and is now painted in Thomson's new "Dreamliner" livery.

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