Passengers on an American Airlines flight experienced a frightening incident on Thursday that involved a bird.
The flight leaving LaGuardia Airport was forced to land at John F. Kennedy International (JFK) Airport when the bird hit an engine, ABC 7 reported on Friday.
Video footage taken from inside the plane shows the aircraft climbing into the evening sky. Everything appears to be normal until a flash is seen and a large object seems to fly into the plane’s engine:
The flight was headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, when the incident happened. The bird damaged the engine and the flight redirected to JFK on one engine but eventually landed safely.
No one among the 190 passengers and crew were hurt.
“We are grateful to our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this may have caused,” the airline said, noting maintenance workers will inspect the aircraft.
Passengers who spoke with the New York Post after landing at JFK said they saw flames and worried the worst was going to happen.
“I was scared. I thought I was gonna die. There were a couple of small explosions. And there was a fire,” one passenger said.
“There were people who were scared. I was a little scared … It kind of felt like how a car would backfire. Rocking a little. At first I didn’t think much of it. But then I saw other people [reacting] around me and thought, ‘This might be bad,'” another traveler commented.
An image shows the moment the bird hit the plane:
In 2023, a similar instance happened when a Southwest plane traveling from Havana, Cuba, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, filled with smoke and was forced to land after birds hit one of the plane’s engines, Breitbart News reported.
One passenger recalled, “To be honest, I thought it was my time to go. I was terrified.”