14 DAY TRIAL // A bird strike has prompted a JetBlue flight diversion on Thursday, June 6. According to airport authorities' reports, the plane landed safely at JFK airport.
Lohud wrote that the aircraft left Westchester County Airport in the morning with 68 passengers and four crew members aboard.
The plane departed for Florida at 7:50 a.m. but was hit by a dozen starlings. The birds popped out from the tall grass and two of them smashed into the plane.
The pilot landed at JFK in New York shortly after taking off, at 8:25 a.m. No mechanical difficulties were experienced as a result of the bird strike.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the aircraft diverted to John F. Kennedy airport for inspection and landed safely at 8:25 a.m.,” a spokesperson for the JetBlue airline says in a statement.
The plane did not incur any damage, but the passengers were moved to another aircraft as a precautionary measure.
“The aircraft was swapped and customers were accommodated on a new aircraft,” Sharon Jones adds, speaking for JetBlue.
The second plane took the passengers to Fort Myers and touched down at 12:37 p.m., registering as a two-hour delay.
“It’s not uncommon to have an aircraft hit a bird on departure in the New York area,” FAA spokesman Jim Peters describes.
Five planes hit flocks of birds at Westchester this year alone, with the latest incident occurring on March 29. Last year, the number of bird strikes was a staggering 43.
“We do a lot of wildlife management here. [...] You’re still never going to eliminate them,” Westchester airport Manager Peter Scherrer notes.
According to the FAA website, airline pay million every year to repair damage caused by the conflict between the birds and the airplanes.
“These conflicts appear to have increased in recent years. Presently, over $600 million (€452.8 million) dollars annually is lost due to wildlife strikes with civil aircraft in the United States alone,” they state.