An Emirates Boeing 777 was hit by a bird as it arrived at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport in India on Saturday 17 October, leaving the passengers booked on the return flight to Dubai stuck in Delhi overnight. "Emirates flight EK517 from Dubai to Delhi on 17 October encountered a bird strike on arrival. As a result, the return flight EK517 from Delhi to Dubai will be delayed while the aircraft undergoes necessary repairs," an Emirates spokesperson said in a statement quoted by Gulf News and the Indian news agency ANI12. The return flight had been due to leave Delhi at 16:25 local time3. Emirates said it was arranging hotel rooms for the affected passengers14.

Emirates has not said how many passengers were affected3. No injuries have been reported. Video from the airport, published by ANI and Indian media, shows ground staff inspecting the nose cone of the aircraft56. Daily Jagran reports that the nose cone was damaged6. Emirates itself has only spoken of "necessary repairs" and has not described the damage1.

What the flight data shows

Open ADS-B data from adsb.lol shows that the Boeing 777-300ER registered A6-EGS flew from Dubai to Delhi on 17 October under callsign UAE516, leaving Dubai at about 07:00 UTC and descending towards Delhi at around 09:30 UTC (15:00 in Delhi)7. The next time the data shows the same aircraft, it is climbing out of Delhi on 18 October under callsign UAE517D, passing 7,000 ft west of the airport at 04:37 UTC7. That puts the departure at just after 10:00 Delhi time, about three hours later than the 07:00 departure Emirates had announced17 and about 17.5 hours after the original schedule37. The aircraft landed in Dubai at 07:28 UTC and, according to the same data, took off from Dubai again about three hours later7.

Emirates' statement refers to both legs as EK5171; in the ADS-B data the inbound leg used callsign UAE5167. Emirates has not named the aircraft. That A6-EGS was the aircraft hit by the bird follows from the data: it arrived in Delhi as the inbound flight and left as the delayed EK517. Emirates has not confirmed it.

What is not known

Emirates has not said at what height or in which phase of the approach the bird was hit, whether more than the nose cone was struck, what was repaired, or whether parts or engineers had to be brought in. Whether the crew made any call to air traffic control has not been reported either. India's aviation regulator DGCA has not published anything about the occurrence that we could find.

What a bird strike means for a widebody

For an airline, the cost of a bird strike is often not the damage itself but the time on the ground. In a briefing note for flight crews, Airbus writes that one bird strike in five damages the aircraft, and that two out of three cause a delay: about an hour and a half for an aircraft and engine check, or longer if an engine has to be changed or the structure repaired8. Airbus also notes that a bird strike on the radome can significantly increase fuel consumption because of the extra drag8.

The nose is one of the parts struck most often. In the US wildlife strike database for 1990 to 2025, the nose accounts for 14 percent of all aircraft components reported as struck by birds and the radome for 11 percent, together about a quarter. Of all components reported as damaged, the radome makes up 9 percent and the nose 7 percent; wings and engines are damaged most often9. Birds are also struck more often on arrival than on departure: 63 percent against 34 percent9.

The radome covers the weather radar antenna at the front of the aircraft. Away from the home base, any check and repair depend on the engineers and parts available at that station, and Emirates has not said how this was handled in Delhi. What is known is that the aircraft spent the night there, and the passengers spent it in hotels17.

Bird strikes in Delhi

Delhi has reported more bird strikes than any other Indian airport in recent years. According to figures from India's Ministry of Civil Aviation tabled in the Rajya Sabha and analysed by Deccan Herald, Delhi recorded 695 bird hits between January 2020 and June 2025, ahead of Mumbai with 407 and Bengaluru with 34310. The yearly totals for Delhi were 62 in 2020, 94 in 2021, 183 in 2022, 185 in 2023, 130 in 2024 and 41 in the first half of 202510. Indian rules require airports to have a Wildlife Hazard Management Plan, and the airport operator Delhi International Airport Limited reported measures such as bird repellents, habitat and insect management and rodent control, the minister told parliament10.

Passenger rights under DGCA rules

Passenger rights on flights to and from India are set out in a Civil Aviation Requirement from the DGCA, Section 3, Series M, Part IV. In the February 2019 revision we consulted, the rules apply explicitly to foreign carriers operating to and from India as well11. For a flight with a block time between 2.5 and 5 hours, such as Delhi to Dubai, the airline must provide meals and refreshments once the expected delay reaches three hours, provided the passenger checked in on time11. Hotel accommodation, including transfers, becomes mandatory when the total delay exceeds 24 hours, or exceeds 6 hours for flights scheduled to depart between 20:00 and 03:0011. By that measure EK517, scheduled for 16:25 with a delay of about 17.5 hours, fell below the hotel threshold; Emirates offered hotel rooms anyway111.

The CAR does not oblige an airline to provide these facilities when a delay is caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. It gives examples such as natural disasters, strikes, air traffic control decisions and weather11. Bird strikes are not mentioned. For foreign carriers, any compensation follows the rules of their own country or the CAR's own compensation paragraphs, which deal with denied boarding and cancellations11. Passengers who feel they did not receive what they were due can complain to the airline first and then through the government's AirSewa portal11.

For more on bird strikes from a crew perspective, see the easyJet A319 that diverted to Liverpool this weekend and the American Airlines 737 crew that declared a mayday at Myrtle Beach. Thinking of flying for Emirates? Start with our Emirates pilot careers page.