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.
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