Rimini, August 21, 2026 – “A sharp bang, then the smell of burning..”. Melanie Romano was on the EasyJet flight that took off from Fellini airport shortly after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, and returned to the airport due to an engine failure. “In the early stages of the flight I didn’t notice any problems – she recounts -. I felt that bang at takeoff, when the plane had just left the runway. It wasn’t very strong, so I thought it might have been something on the runway.”
For the passengers, fears began some tens of minutes later, in flight, when there was a coming and going of attendants in the cockpit.
“I had dozed off, and when I opened my eyes I saw we were heading south, in the opposite direction. At that point I realized something was not going right.”
No communications had yet been made to passengers when “I saw the steward being called into the cockpit. The suspicion that something had gone wrong was growing.”
Bird strike during takeoff
Then the steward came out of the cockpit and together with his colleague rushed to the back of the aircraft where the other crew members were. Everything happened in a flurry, with passengers’ eyes beginning to widen.
“We all looked at each other and started to get scared. Then the crew took the microphone and explained that during takeoff there had been a bird strike involving one of the engines, and that’s when I understood that the bang I had heard was a bird entering the engine. Over the microphone they told us that for safety reasons the plane would return to Fellini, but by then it was panic.”
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I had dozed off, and when I opened my eyes I saw we were heading south, in the opposite direction
The plane circled over Fellini airport
Passengers had no choice but to hold onto their seats, tighten their seatbelts, and wait. Meanwhile, the EasyJet Airbus began circling over the airport. “At those moments I didn’t understand if we were waiting for other planes to depart or something else.” What the passengers hoped for was to land as soon as possible. A few minutes later the Airbus began to descend toward the runway, touching the asphalt with its wheels. “Everyone was waiting for us, from the firefighters to the ambulances, but fortunately no one had to intervene.”
The €4.50 voucher: pizza and drink offered
But it wasn’t over. Passengers were not allowed to disembark immediately. “We stayed on board for quite a long time, so much so that I thought we might take off again. Instead, at some point they told us we could get off and led us to a room where there was only us.”
Time passed and only around 7 p.m. was it announced that a new plane would arrive to then take off for Gatwick around 11:30 p.m. Meanwhile, passengers were given vouchers worth €4.50 “with which they offered us pizza and a drink.” Passengers spent the time on the Fellini terrace “where we saw flocks of birds swirling in the sky. There were so many, they looked like black clouds changing shape.”
The restart just before midnight, and without birds making takeoff problematic.
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