Lightning and bird strike ground Bali Jetstar 787s

Jetstar has blamed a freak series of events including a lightning and bird strike for grounding multiple 787s. On Tuesday, it emerged the problems also led the budget airline to cancel flights to Phuket and Japan alongside its earlier cancellations to Bali. According to Flightradar, the aircraft recently out of operation include Dreamliners VKA, VKB, VKI and VJK, while VKL hasn’t flown since June. Jetstar chief pilot Jeremy Schmidt revealed, “Unfortunately, our Boeing 787 fleet has been impacted by a number of issues, including a lightning strike, a bird strike, damage from an item on the runway and delays sourcing a specific spare part for one of our aircraft due to global supply chain challenges. The part has to be road freighted across the US. Jetstar is hoping to have seven in operation by the end of Tuesday, while four will remain grounded. Next week, three more should have returned to service. The Qantas Group has tried to alleviate the issue by putting passengers on “special flights” to Melbourne as well as regular Qantas services.<br/>