Jetliner coming, better duck

WHILE successfully avoiding hunters at the weekend, one duck forgot to watch out for passenger jets.

An Air New Zealand flight from Dunedin had an unplanned stop on Saturday morning after a duck flew into the engine shortly after the plane took off.

Flight NZ680, bound for Wellington, was initially delayed by fog at Dunedin Airport.

A spokeswoman for Air New Zealand said once airborne, the plane ‘‘unfortunately encountered birds’’ and it was decided to divert to Christchurch so the aircraft could be inspected by engineers.

Dunedin passenger Amadeo EnriquezBallestero said there was a ‘‘big burst of energy’’ when one of a group of ducks flew into the plane’s right engine.

‘‘I thought that one of the wheels was broken. I started imagining that if the wheel didn’t work we’d have to land in the water.’’

While he told people later it was ‘‘fine’’, he admitted the incident was quite scary.

It was a relief, and ‘‘quite funny’’ when the pilot revealed the cause of the disruption, he said.

‘‘When he explained what happened he said we’d maybe notice a bit of a roastduck smell in the cabin. He said the engine was very sturdy and that we just had a fright for a few minutes.’’

The pilot decided to stop in Christchurch as a precaution, and the 88 passengers were flown to Wellington in another plane later that morning.

Mr EnriquezBallestero said he was not surprised the birds were flying around on the opening weekend of the duckshooting season.

‘‘Of course the ducks would have been gone from areas where they are being shot at, but what the ducks didn’t know was that in the airport there are big planes. I feel for the poor duck.’’

The spokeswoman said pilots trained for bird strikes, which were ‘‘not uncommon’’.