NEW YORK when taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York, an American Airlines aircraft was forced to turn around and land at John F. Kennedy International Airport when a bird strike destroyed one of its two engines, according to authorities on Friday.
Mayday, Mayday, Mayday According to a recording of air traffic control conversations, the pilot of the aircraft headed for Charlotte, North Carolina, radioed to the control tower during Thursday’s emergency due to an American 1722 engine failure.
We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on, but it looks like we have an engine failure. According to the recording preserved by the aviation website LiveATC.net, the pilot stated, “We hit birds on the way out.”
The incident involving the Airbus A321, which departed from LaGuardia at 7:43 p.m. with 190 passengers and six staff members on board, left no one hurt, according to airline officials.
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The pilot reported an emergency at 7:52 p.m., according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the main airports in the New York region.
The pilot asked for permission to land at Kennedy, according to the air traffic recording.
We’re in an emergency, American 1722. Could you possibly let us land without worrying about departing traffic? he said.
According to the Port Authority, the aircraft successfully touched down at 8:03 p.m. and taxied to the terminal on its own initiative.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, there were 19,400 bird attacks at 713 airports in the United States last year alone, indicating an increase in these incidents. They rarely inflict enough damage to necessitate emergency landings for commercial jetliners.
The plane landed safely at Kennedy and was being examined by maintenance personnel, according to a statement from American Airlines. The airline expressed gratitude to its workers for their professionalism and expressed regret to its customers for any trouble this may have caused.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, an investigation is underway.
Similar to Thursday’s American Airlines flight, the so-called Miracle on the Hudson included a plane from LaGuardia for Charlotte, and this bird strike disabled a commercial airliner brought up memories of that incident. Shortly after taking off, that US Airways aircraft lost power in both engines after colliding with a flock of birds on January 15, 2009. Following his successful landing of the helpless aircraft in the Hudson River and the rescue of all 155 passengers, pilot Chesley Sully Sullenberger was acclaimed as a hero.
–The Associated Press/Karen Matthews
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