The path of the flight.

The path of the flight.

THE LATEST AER Lingus supply flight which was headed to China to pick up personal protective equipment was forced to make an emergency landing in Dublin after it hit a flock of birds.

The flight, which is one of two heading to China today to pick up the equipment, hit the birds shortly after take-off.

Flight EI9018 safely landed this afternoon, and took off again at 5pm this evening.

A statement from Aer Lingus said the pane was assessed by engineers after landing.

Yesterday, the first shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) landed at Dublin Airport.

The Airbus A330-302 plane was loaded with PPE including masks, gowns and goggles in Beijing before making the over 8,000 km flight back to Ireland.

The shipment, worth an estimated €28 million, is made up of 11 million masks, 2.3 million eye protections, 2.4 million gowns, and nine million gloves.

This is the first delivery flight of the HSE’s €208 million order of PPE from China.