New York City – A possible bird strike shortly after takeoff forced an American Airlines passenger plane to make an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City Thursday evening, officials said.
American Airlines Flight 1722 had taken off from LaGuardia Airport and was headed to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina when it was diverted to JFK Airport just after 10 p.m. local time due to a “reported bird strike,” the airline confirmed to CBS News in a statement.
There were no reports of injuries among the nearly 200 people on board the Airbus A321.
“We are grateful to our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this may have caused,” the airline said.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the incident and said in a statement that it was investigating.
The cellphone video provided to CBS News captured a flash that may have come from birds hitting one of the plane’s engines.
“Pilots are absolutely trained to fly on one engine, so everything worked the way it was supposed to work last night,” Robert Sumwalt, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told CBS News on Friday.
In 2009, the “Miracle on the HudsonIt involved a bird strike and a plane taking the same route as Thursday’s American Airlines plane. All 155 people were rescued in that incident and pilot Sully Sullenberger became an instant aviation hero.
More than 19,000 bird strikes According to the Federal Aviation Administration, which maintains a database of collisions between aircraft and wildlife, more than 700 airports have reported these types of incidents in the U.S. in 2023.
In April, a bird strike causing the engine to catch fire, forcing an American Airlines plane from Columbus, Ohio, to Phoenix, Arizona, to return to Columbus about 30 minutes after takeoff.
“Birds still fly, and they always will fly, and airplanes will always fly,” Sumwalt said. “So the trick is to keep the two separate.”
