American Airlines Plane Suffers Significant Damage After Slamming Into 'Multiple' Birds on Approach Into Kansas City
An American Airlines Boeing 737-800 suffered multiple bird strikes while on approach to Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday.
Despite the bird strike causing significant damage, no injuries were reported by any of the crew or the passengers, according to SimpleFlying.
The flight took off from Chicago O’Hare International Airport at 8:17 p.m. local time. After the plane began its descent towards Kansas City’s runway, the crew declared that the plane had received a bird strike.
They were able to land on the runway as soon as they arrived — which was a few minutes after the bird strike. First responders were on the scene when the plane landed.
The 12-year-old plane, registered as N844NN, suffered the most damage to the engine cowling, the nose, and the left wing. Photos of the damage show the bloody remains still stuck to the plane.
While bird strikes don’t often make the front pages, they’re actually quite common and also almost completely unavoidable.
SimpleFlying cited several such incidents that have occurred recently.
An Akasa Air Boeing 737 MAX was forced to land last month, on Oct. 28, after a bird strike hit them as they were climbing. No injuries were reported.
On Oct. 15, a bird strike hit another aircraft in Akasa Air’s fleet that was taking off from Mumbai airport. The plane was forced to land, and passengers reported a burning smell caused by bird remains in one of the engines.
On Saturday, bird strikes hit two planes at the same airport at Pakistan’s Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.
According to ProPakistani, the first flight, PK-350, was taking off from Karachi and headed to Peshawar. It was hit by a bird strike as it took off, forcing the pilot to turn back to the airport.
The second plane, PK-305, left from Lahore and was landing at Karachi when it was struck by a bird while descending.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, between 1988 and 2019, there were 292 human fatalities caused by wildlife strikes around the world.
During the 1990 to 2019 time period in the U.S., there were 227,005 wildlife strikes.
Almost all wildlife strikes (97 percent) involving civil aircraft in the U.S. were caused by birds, however; non-bird strikes are also occasionally caused by animals such as white-tailed deer and coyotes.
The majority of bird strikes occur as the plane is either landing or taking off.
The first bird strike ever was reported by the Wright Brothers.
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