A Frontier Airlines Airbus A320-200 was in the initial climb out of Denver’s runway 08 cleared to climb to FL230 when the crew requested to level off at 10,000 feet due to a bird strike to figure out what is going on.
The crew decided to initially continue the departure route. The crew subsequently advised they were slowing to 250 KIAS, the crew advised they were already in the climb past the runway end when there was a really loud bang. The crew advised they would return as a precaution, no need to declare an emergency, they needed to burn off some fuel, the crew commented it probably was a “duck on a bad day”. The aircraft entered a hold on the localizer runway 16R, burned off fuel and landed safely back on Denver’s runway 16R about one hour after departure.
The aircraft, N203FR, was performing flight F9-452 from Denver, CO to Washington Dulles, DC (USA).
A passenger reported the crew announced after landing that there was a large dent.
Image © Wikimedia
