A bird strike involving an American Airlines jetliner disabled one of the plane’s two engines shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia airport, forcing the flight to turn around and land at John F Kennedy international airport, authorities said on Friday.
No one was injured in the incident on Thursday involving flight 1722, which took off from LaGuardia at 7.43pm with a destination of Charlotte, North Carolina, airline officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration says bird strikes are increasing, with 19,400 strikes at 713 airports across the US last year alone. Rarely do they cause so much damage that commercial jetliners are forced to make emergency landings.
The pilot of the Airbus A321 declared an emergency at 7.52pm and diverted to JFK airport, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the New York area’s major airports, said in a statement.
The plane landed safely at 8.03pm and taxied to the terminal under its own power, the Port Authority said.
American Airlines said in a statement that flight 1722 diverted to JFK “due to a reported bird strike. ”
“The aircraft landed safely at JFK where it will be inspected by our maintenance team,” the airline said. “We are grateful to our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this may have caused.”
There were 190 customers and six crew members on the flight, which was rescheduled for departure on Friday morning, airline officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating.
This bird-strike incident recalled the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson”, which like Thursday’s American Airlines flight involved a plane leaving LaGuardia for Charlotte. That US Airways jet hit a flock of birds on 15 January 2009 and lost power in both engines shortly after takeoff. Pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was hailed as a hero after he landed the powerless plane in the Hudson River and all 155 people on board were rescued.
