A plane’s bird strike was thought to have damaged the engines of American Airlines Flight 1491 and forced it to land. But fortunately the commercial airliner is already back up and flying.
Shortly after departing Tulsa, AA flight 1491 struck a flock of birds and the pilot decided to turn back instead of continuing heading to Dallas. All 182 passengers and 7 crew members were safe and no one was harmed during the incident. In fact, the passengers were kept on board the same plan as it was inspect.
Initial reports claimed the engine may have been hit. But apparently the airline crew felt there was not any danger since the same plane was used to deliver the passengers to Dallas. AA flight 1491 successfully departed this afternoon and there haven’t been any reports of further problems in transit.
But having a plane bird strike is not that unusual. For example, a flight out of South Africa ran into the same problem and didn’t suffer any major damage:
“Shortly after take-off, the aircraft encountered a multiple bird strike. After a standard fuel jettison procedure in order to ensure an appropriate landing weight, the flight landed safely without further incident at 13:43 (1143 GMT), approximately one hour and two minutes after departure.”