KUALA LUMPUR (July 4): A Kuala Lumpur-bound AirAsia X Bhd Flight D7 207 which took off from Gold Coast, Australia at 10.20pm yesterday (July 3) was diverted to Brisbane, Queensland, after a suspected bird strike hit its starboard engine shortly after take-off.

The plane, with 345 passengers and 14 crew, landed safely at Brisbane Airport at 11.33pm local time yesterday, AirAsia X Bhd said in a statement today.

The budget airline said the remains of two birds were found on the Gold Coast Airport runway, where it took off. “Passengers on board the flight were attended to the ground staff upon landing, and were provided with all necessary assistance, including hotel accommodation in Brisbane,” AirAsia X added.

AirAsia X has deployed a recovery flight D7 689, which is expected to arrive in Brisbane Airport at 5.10pm local time. It is scheduled to depart for Kuala Lumpur at 6.10pm, the statement added.

The incident is the second for AirAsia X in a month. On June 25, it got into the spotlight after its flight from Perth, Australia with 359 people on board was forced to turn back, due to an engine malfunction after 90 minutes into the journey towards Kuala Lumpur.

At 10.52am, shares of the budget airline slid half a sen or 1.22% at 40.5 sen, with 4.95 million shares traded, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.68 billion.