SriLankan Airlines UL503 to London Rejects Its Takeoff at Colombo After a Suspected Bird Strike

SriLankan Airlines flight UL503 from Colombo to London Heathrow rejected its takeoff on October 28, 2026, after a suspected bird strike hit one of its engines. The pilots stopped the jet on the runway and taxied it back to the stand, and everyone on board got off safely.

The airline sent the passengers on to London in a replacement aircraft with a new crew, close to four hours behind schedule.

What happened at Bandaranaike

UL503 was due to leave Bandaranaike International Airport at 12:55 p.m. local time. According to the airline’s statement, as carried by the Daily Mirror, the suspected strike affected one engine during the takeoff run.

The crew rejected the takeoff as a precaution, SriLankan said, and the aircraft did not become airborne. It was then taxied back to its parking stand, where passengers and crew disembarked.

The airline has not said which engine was involved. Colombo Times reported that a bird was ingested into the right engine and that 269 people were on board, 15 of them crew.

SriLankan said the safety of passengers and crew remained its highest priority, apologized for the inconvenience and thanked passengers for their patience. It has not said what damage, if any, was found on the first aircraft.

The replacement flight

The airline arranged a replacement aircraft and crew and set a new departure time of 4:30 p.m. Newswire later reported that the replacement had left for London.

Tracking data from FlightAware shows an Airbus A330-300, registered 4R-ALP, taking off for Heathrow at 4:45 p.m. local time. That was close to four hours after the original slot, and FlightAware estimated arrival in London at about 9:30 p.m. GMT, against a scheduled 7:10 p.m.

The same history shows 4R-ALP arriving in Colombo from London at 12:55 p.m. that day. SriLankan has not named either aircraft, so the registration of the jet that rejected its takeoff is not known.

Why pilots reject a takeoff

Every airliner takeoff is planned around a decision speed called V1. US regulations define it as the maximum speed at which the pilot must take the first action to stop, such as applying the brakes or reducing thrust, and still halt the aircraft within the accelerate-stop distance.

Below V1, a crew that sees a serious problem can abort and stop on the runway that remains. Above it, the calculation flips: the aircraft is committed, and the crew continues the takeoff and deals with the problem in the air.

So a strike during the takeoff run can end with the jet back at its stand, as UL503 did, while a strike after liftoff means flying a circuit and landing again. Why birds gather near runways, and what crews can do about them, is covered in our explainer on how airplanes avoid birds.

In August, a Malaysia Airlines A330 aborted its takeoff at Narita after an engine fire. By SriLankan’s account, the Colombo stop was precautionary, and everyone on board disembarked safely.

Not the first bird strike at Colombo this year

On July 11, a Turkish Airlines A330-300 operating TK731 to Istanbul was reportedly hit by a bird shortly after takeoff, the Daily Mirror reported at the time.

That jet circled off the west coast for more than three hours before landing. The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka said it had no in-flight fuel dumping system and had to burn fuel to bring its weight down, a step UL503 avoided by stopping on the runway.

At the time of writing, SriLankan had not posted a notice about UL503 on its own news page, and no investigation report had been published.