A bird might be small compared to a jetliner, but get a whole bunch of them together and they can do some pretty serious damage. Passengers on an American Airlines flight out of Seattle found that out yesterday, when the plane was forced to turn around after a bird strike left a two-foot dent in the nose of the aircraft.
American Airlines Flight 2310 was heading to Dallas/Fort Worth last night with 150 passengers on board, but ended up turning around after two or more birds apparently hit the plane, reports KIRO-TV (warning: link contains video that auto-plays).
The plane landed safely back at Sea-Tac, with a visible dent on the nose cone.
“American Airlines 2310, from Seattle-Tacoma (SeaTac) to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), returned to SeaTac due to a bird strike, which struck the nose of the aircraft,” the airlines said in a statement. “Our maintenance team is currently evaluating the aircraft. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience, and are working to get them to Texas as soon as possible.”
Two-foot dent left on plane after Sea-Tac birdstrike [KIRO-TV]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist