Bird strike forces Qatar Airways emergency landing in Turkey

A Qatar Airways passenger jet with over 300 people on board made an emergency landing at Istanbul's main airport Thursday after an engine caught fire, the airline said, blaming a "bird strike" for the blaze. Video footage showed flames spitting out of the left engine of the Airbus 330 as it prepared to land at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport. It made it safely to the ground. Qatar Airways later issued a statement saying that "all 298 passengers and 14 crew disembarked normally." However, local Turkish news agencies reported one woman on board was hospitalized after suffering a fainting spell. It said it would send a replacement aircraft to Istanbul to ferry waiting passengers onward to its hub in the vast new Hamad International Airport in Doha, which is preparing to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The airline blamed the fire on Flight QR240 on what it described as a "bird strike," without elaborating. Typically, such strikes can see birds sucked into a passenger plane's jet engine, sparking a fire and shorting it out.<br/>