Kuwaiti budget carrier Jazeera Airways has been fined over KD72.8 million ($236 million) by a court after one of the airline’s Airbus A320s collided with a tethered military balloon eight years ago.
The occurrence involved flight J9787 which had been inbound from Riyadh on 27 August 2017.
As it conducted an approach to Kuwait’s international airport, the jet snagged the tethering cable for the balloon, which cut into the inlet of the A320’s right-hand CFM International CFM56 engine.
The aircraft (9K-CAK) had carried out an orbit over the Al Jahra district of Kuwait City shortly before turning onto the base leg for runway 15R.
Kuwait’s defence ministry has a facility near Al Jahra which includes tethered balloons.
According to the court of first instance judgement on 10 March, Jazeera must pay the ministry two sums of nearly KD70.6 million and KD2.26 million.
The ministry’s case was against both Jazeera Airways and the Kuwaiti directorate general of civil aviation.
Jazeera has disclosed the decision “obligating [the airline] to compensate the ministry of defence for the damage to the parts of the military aerostat balloon owned by the ministry”.
But it stresses that the ruling has “no financial impact” on the carrier because the claim will be “covered by insurance” if it is upheld by a final judgement.
