Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s an Internet flap

BANGKOK —A Thai AirAsia plane hit a bird during a flight in Thailand, where the word for bird is “nok,” sparking social media confusion over whether the aircraft had collided with a plane from budget carrier Nok Air.

Nok Air issued a brief statement Wednesday on Twitter to set the story straight: “We would like to clarify that Nok Air did not clip another aircraft today.” It added that the other aircraft had hit a real bird.

The Airbus A320-200, carrying 151 passengers from Bangkok to southern Nakhon Si Thammarat, landed safely Wednesday morning but the impact left “a scratch” on the left wing, Thai AirAsia said in a statement.

Engineers inspected and repaired the wing before the aircraft returned to Bangkok after a three-hour delay, the airline said.

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