One of the most famous bird-plane collisions occurred when, in 2009, a flock of Canada geese came in the way of a US Airways flight from Charlotte to New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Captain Sully Sullenberg’s quick-thinking decision to land the plane with malfunctioning engines in the Hudson River on a cold January day turned him into an instant aviation hero and were later dramatized by Clint Eastwood in the 2016 movie “Sully.”
Related: Airplane Makes Emergency Landing After Overhead Bin Erupts in Flames Mid-Flight
On Nov. 12, the engine of an Airbus A321 (EADSF) -) similarly gave way and erupted into flames while Chile-based LATAM Airlines (LTMAQ) -) was flying over Brazil on the way from the city of Salvador to São Paulo.
2014 delivered LATAM Airlines Airbus A321-231 aircraft (PT-MXQ) made a safe landing on Runway 10 of Salvador International Airport (SSA/SBSV), Brazil after a bird hit incident on Engine 2 at FL160, followed by flame spitting visuals on 12 Nov.
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) November 13, 2023
Flight : https://t.co/XaJci8vHPZ pic.twitter.com/nMSUUSx0dz
‘We thought we were going to die,’ passenger describes
As the plane had just taken off, it was able to make an emergency landing at Salvador-Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães Airport safely and evacuate the passengers onboard without any injuries.
More Travel:
- A new travel term is taking over the internet (and reaching airlines and hotels)
- The 10 best airline stocks to buy now
- Airlines see a new kind of traveler at the front of the plane
Video captured by one of the passengers through a window from inside the plane shows sparks coming from the side of the plane as it makes an emergency landing in the night.
Other videos from the incident shows some of the passengers getting onto the ground of the airplane to pray.
“It really was a moment of terror that we experienced,” passenger Marcelo de Oliveira told Brazilian news outlet G1. “A very big scare, but thank God everything worked out. We panicked, we thought we were going to die.”
In statements to Brazilian media outlets, LATAM Airlines later explained that a bird came across the airplane’s path, got pulled into the starboard wing and prompted the fire. After the plane made a safe landing on Luís Eduardo Magalhães Airport‘s Runway 10, passengers were escorted out and rebooked on other flights to their destination.
Birds are a common problem on flights
A formal investigation into what went wrong is currently ongoing but LATAM told the New York Post that it “emphasizes that it adopts all technical and operational measures to ensure a safe trip for everyone.”
Due to the unpredictability of their paths and power of coming across a plane at high speed, birds are a common reason for planes to have to make emergency landings. In 2021, Dutch carrier airline KLM (AFRAF) -) had to turn back around halfway through a flight from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport to Tanzania’s Zanzibar after encountering a “bird strike” (this is what, in aviation, refers to a plane coming across a bird in some capacity) when flying over Greece and the Mediterranean Sea.
While the strike did not cause an immediate emergency, the pilots decided not to risk it and turn back around to Amsterdam.
In April 2023, an American Airlines (AAL) -) flight from Columbus to Phoenix had to make an emergency landing just after taking off after collision with a flock of birds disabled the engine.
“A flight landed normally and taxied safely to the gate under its own power," the airline said in a statement. "The aircraft was taken out of service for maintenance and our team is working to get customers back on their way.”
