The plane that was going from Katunayake to Turkey returned due to a bird.

A Turkish Airlines aircraft, which encountered a bird strike incident immediately after taking off from Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport, has been kept flying and held in the airspace off the western coast of Sri Lanka. On July 11, 2026, A.M.

According to information received at 9:59 AM, this aircraft, TK731, an Airbus A330-300 type, which was scheduled to travel to Istanbul, has been flying in circles above the area around Negombo Lagoon for over two hours as a precautionary measure before landing back at Bandaranaike Airport.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka states that due to the absence of a special fuel jettison system on this aircraft, it is currently burning fuel to reduce the required landing weight for landing. However, authorities declare that the aircraft's control is fully maintained, and all passengers and crew on board are safe.

In accordance with the standard operating procedure followed for this precautionary landing, the airport's emergency services are also currently on standby. Meanwhile, with this incident, many people worldwide are continuously monitoring the flight path of this aircraft via the Flightradar24 website, and as a result, it has now become the most tracked aircraft globally.