The incident took place when a baggage cart operated by the airport’s ground handlers veered into the Airbus A330-300 aircraft and damaged an engine cowling (outer case) on Tuesday night.

SriLankan Airlines made immediate arrangements for 32 passengers with onward connections in Colombo to travel on flights of other airlines. The remaining 251 passengers were provided overnight hotel accommodation in Bangkok by SriLankan Airlines. All 283 passengers were served a meal on board while arrangements were made.

Another aircraft was dispatched from Colombo to Bangkok within a few hours, to operate a special flight to bring the remaining passengers to Colombo. The flight, UL1423, was scheduled to return to Colombo at 1715 hours (5:15 p.m.) local time on Wednesday (23).