Jun 30, 2009 6:58 pm US/Eastern
Bird Strike Forces Emergency Landing At LaGuardia
AA Flight 1256, Headed Towards NYC Airport From Miami, Landed Safely After Collision With Birds
Nose Hydraulics Damaged, Large Bird Found In Landing Gear
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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American Airlines Flight 1256, a Boeing 737 en route to LaGuardia Airport, landed safely after declaring a bird strike about 900 feet before it landed on June 30, 2009.
CBS
On Tuesday at LaGuardia Airport another airliner had a mid-air bird strike. The plane landed safely, but the strike damaged the nose gear.
American Airlines Flight 1256 from Miami was on the ground, after reporting a bird strike approaching the airport at 900 feet. Kelly Ruiz was one of the 135 passengers aboard.
"It's pretty shocking. I had no idea," Ruiz said, adding that the flight crew mentioned nothing of the incident.
It was just before 11 a.m. when the strike occurred. Once the pilot landed, he noticed that the nose gear's hydraulics was not working.
The plane, a 737-800, was towed to a gate. The passengers safely got off, and a large bird was found in the landing gear.
A captain on his way to Dallas said he's had a bird strike, but years ago.
"In the Air Force, flew military, I did, but at American Airlines I didn't have any trouble. Oh yeah, we get our heads out and we're looking all the time," pilot Christopher Sweesy said.
Of course, it's all reminiscent of what happened last January in the Miracle on the Hudson.
That's when a US Airways Airbus hit birds and lost both engines forcing a remarkable landing in the Hudson. All 155 aboard survived. Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said the city will trap and gas 2,000 Canada geese this summer in public parks near the airports.
One former National Transportation Safety Board official supports the removal of birds.
"The potential is always there for a dramatic accident as opposed to something like where a landing gear got stuck once they were down on the ground," Ira Furman said.
Passengers are generally unaware of bird strikes, but at LaGuardia there were 98 bird strikes last year alone.
Also under consideration is radar to spot flocks of birds in order to divert planes away from them.
The Federal Aviation Administration list of wildlife strikes, published on the Internet, details more than 89,000 incidents since 1990, including 28 cases since 2000 when a collision with a bird or other animal such as a deer on a runway was so severe that the aircraft was considered destroyed.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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