FedEx cargo planes made an emergency landing at the busy New Jersey airport on Saturday after bird attacks caused an engine fire seen in the morning skies.
Ranis Valence, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the plane had landed at Newar Liberty International Airport in an emergency. No injuries were reported and the fire on the cargo plane was included in the engine, Valens said.
Audio recorded by Liveatc calmly said the aircraft needed to “shut down for the possibility of a bird attack.” “We need to go back to the airport.”
A moment later, we hear another person saying, “I believe I saw the engine fall from the right wing.” Audio shows that the strike took place when the plane was several hundred feet away from the ground.
The emergency landing temporarily halted air traffic as a precautionary measure and operations resumed soon after, Valens said. The emergency landing occurred shortly after 8am of the morning boarded, and everyone safely got off the plane, Valens said.
A FedEx spokesman said the plane headed for Indianapolis, but the bird strike “could have safely returned to Newark after declaring a state of emergency and dealing with the resulting engine damage.”
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“The training, expertise and professionalism demonstrated by the FedEx pilots were exemplary. A spokesman for Austin Kenker said:
Kenneth Hoffman, pilot for another flight, said he heard from air traffic control that an emergency was underway when his flight was suspended. Hoffman posted a video on social media for a FedEx plane on the ground at Newark airport.
It sounded like everyone was OK, but there was a lot of smoke and the airport was closed for 15-20 minutes, Hoffman said.
The pilot’s response was great, Hoffman said.
“They treated it like a champion,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s all about our training.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said it would investigate the incident. “The strike destroyed one of the engines of the Boeing 767,” the FAA said in a statement. He also said he would investigate the National Transportation Safety Board.
Bird strikes are aviation risks and can sometimes cause great confusion. The bird was accused of defeating a jet liner that had been arrested by a “sully” Sullenberger landed on the Hudson River in 2009.
The FAA says there is an increase in bird attacks with over 19,000 wildlife strikes at US 713 airports in 2023. It is rare for a jet liner to cause so much damage that it would force an emergency landing.
Emergency landings come at a time when awareness of flight problems is increased. Last month there were four major aviation disasters in North America. They include an airborne collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at the National Airport that killed all 10 people on board in the February 6 crash crash of an Alaska commuter plane, and killed all 67 people on January 26.
Patrick Whittle and Sarah Blumfield
