Sunday 02/Mar/2025 – 07:27 AM
A cargo plane landed at a crowded airport in New Jersey, USA, on Saturday, after it collided with a bird in a fire with its engine.
Videos on social media platforms showed the moment of fire in the FedEx shipping “Boeing 767” engine, and landing it at the airport safely despite the engine fire.
The Ports Authority spokesman for the New York and New Jersey said that the plane had made an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport, where the fire was controlled quickly and there were no injuries.
On board the plane was 3 people, they got out of it safely after stopping.
And the audio recording of a person saying quietly that the plane needs “closing because of the possibility of a bird’s collision. We need to return to the airport.”
Moments later, someone else heard: “We think we saw the engine falling from the right wing.”
The sound indicates that the collision occurred when the plane was several hundreds of feet above the ground.
Valends said that the emergency landing caused a briefly stopping air traffic as a precaution, while the operations were resumed shortly.
A spokesman for the company “FedEx” said that the plane was heading to Indianapolis, but because of the collision of the bird, “it declared a state of emergency and returned safely to Newark Airport after dealing with the damage caused to the engine.”
The spokesman added: “The training, expertise and professionalism shown by the FedEx pilots showed was typical. We are grateful for the rapid measures of our crew and the first respondents,” the spokesman added.
According to a report by the US Department of Transport, there are more than 19,000 birds of birds that hit the aircraft in 2023, an increase of 14% over 2022.
The report found that 65 % of bird strikes occur during takeoff or landing, and that only about 5 % of the strikes lead to damage to the plane.
