CX252 - Incident: Cathay B773 at London on Nov 10th 2026
Created Wednesday, Nov 11th 2026 17:36Z, last updated Wednesday, Nov 11th 2026 17:36Z
A Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300, registration B-KPD performing flight CX-252 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Hong Kong (China), departed Heathrow's runway 09R but received a bird strike into the right hand engine (GE90). The crew initially continued the flight, climbed to FL310 and was about to enter Czech Airspace near Nuremberg (Germany) when the crew decided to return to Heathrow due to right hand engine vibrations. The aircraft maintained FL310 on the way back and landed safely on Heathrow's runway 09L about 3 hours after departure.
A passenger reported the aircraft was just rotating for takeoff when a loud bang occurred and a large streak of flame was emitted by the right hand engine. The nose came briefly down again before the aircraft rotated up again and climbed out. The captain later announced they had experienced a bird strike.
ACARS messages from the aircraft suggest the right hand engine experienced higher than normal vibrations and a higher than normal EGT but was still normal. The captain intended to continue the flight and make a final decision when about to enter Turkey unless otherwise advised by operations.
The flight was cancelled.
Source: The Aviation Herald
CX252 around Nov 10, 2026
From Airportia's flight history: CX252 LHR–HKG in the days around the story. Local times; on time means less than 15 minutes late.
| Date | Departure | Arrival | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed, Nov 11 | 11:22 | 07:18 | Landed |
| Tue, Nov 10 story | 11:25 | 07:00 | Diverted |
| Mon, Nov 9 | 11:17 | 07:05 | Landed |
| Sun, Nov 8 | 11:19 | 07:48 | Landed Late |
| Sat, Nov 7 | 11:18 | 07:24 | Landed |
| Fri, Nov 6 | 11:44 | 07:49 | Landed Late |
| Thu, Nov 5 | 11:22 | 07:21 | Landed |
| Wed, Nov 4 | 11:25 | 07:17 | Landed |