A flight was disrupted at the Cox’s Bazar domestic airport on Saturday evening after the plane struck a dog on the runway.

All the 72 passengers on board the Air Astra Airlines flight were safe, but the dog was found dead. The incident delayed the flight by around an hour. Around 8.08pm, the plane safely reached its destination at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.

Every night, stray dogs enter the runway almost freely due to an opening at the northern side left by unfinished construction works, said Cox’s Bazar airport manager Golam Martuza, adding that the crisis has become “unavoidable.”

About Saturday’s incident, Golam Martuza told reporters that the plane hit the dog right when it was about to take off. The crew sensed a hit with something on the ground, and immediately decided to land the plane to avoid risks.

Upon landing, the ground crew found a dead dog near the plane and removed it from the runway. No fault was found in the aircraft after technical checks.