A Royal Nepal Airlines 757 with 179 passengers bound for London had to abort takeoff from Kathmandu airport Thursday morning when a large bird was sucked into the right engine, shattering the fan blades. The pilot managed to stop the plane on the runway before it was airborne. The incident happened on the same morning that a symposium on the threat to aircraft from bird strikes was taking place in Kathmandu.

All of last week, there has been bird havoc at Kathmandu airport with kites and eagles circling dangerously close to the approach and on the runway, airport officials said. Several international flights were delayed, and others had to abort landing at the last moment and go around. Thursday's bird strike was the third reported in Kathmandu since a Buddha Air aircraft hit a bird on approach earlier this month. Last week, a Cosmic Air Dornier hit a bird after takeoff from Pokhara for Jomsom.

At the bird strike seminar, experts blamed bird danger on increased urban congestion near airports, and indiscriminate dumping of trash and carcasses on river beds. Since July the government has been dumping the city's garbage along the banks of the Bagmati river 100 metres away from the northern end of the runway.