By PATRICK WHITTLE and SARAH BRUMFIELD Associated Press
A FedEx cargo plane made an emergency landing at a busy New Jersey airport on Saturday after a bird strike caused an engine fire that could be seen in the morning sky.
The plane landed at Newark Liberty International Airport during the emergency, said Lenis Valens, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. There were no reported injuries, and fire on the cargo plane was contained to the engine, Valens said.
Audio recorded by LiveATC captured a person calmly saying the aircraft needed to “shut down for a possible bird strike” immediately. “We need to return to the airport.”
Moments later, another person is heard saying: “We believe we saw their engine fall off the right wing.” The audio indicates the strike happened when the plane was several hundred feet off the ground.
The emergency landing caused air traffic to be briefly halted as a precaution, and operations resumed shortly after, Valens said. The emergency landing happened just after 8 a.m. Three people were on board, and all got off the plane safely, Valens said.
A spokesperson for FedEx said the plane was headed for Indianapolis but due to the bird strike “declared an emergency and returned safely to Newark after dealing with the resulting engine damage,” which included an engine fire.
“The training, expertise, and professionalism demonstrated by our FedEx pilots was exemplary. We are thankful for the quick actions of our crew and first responders,” said the spokesperson, Austin Kemker.
Kenneth Hoffman, a pilot on another flight, said as his flight was pushing off, they heard from air traffic control that there was an emergency in progress. Hoffman posted a video on social media of a FedEx plane on the ground at the Newark airport with flames shooting from its side as it slowed to a stop with fire rescue equipment nearby.
While it sounded like everyone was OK, there was a lot of smoke and the airport was shut down for 15 to 20 minutes, Hoffman said.
The pilots’ response was great, Hoffman said.
“They handled it like champs,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s what our training is all about.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said it will investigate the incident. The FAA said in a statement that the “strike damaged one of the Boeing 767’s engines.” The National Transportation Safety Board also said it would investigate.
Bird strikes are aviation hazards that sometimes cause major disruptions. Birds were blamed for bringing down a jetliner that “Sully” Sullenberger landed on the Hudson River in 2009.
The FAA has said bird strikes are increasing, with more than 19,000 wildlife strikes at 713 U.S. airports in 2023. Only rarely do they cause so much damage that jetliners are forced to make emergency landings.
The emergency landing comes at a time of heightened awareness of flight problems. In the past month, there have been four major aviation disasters in North America. They include the Feb. 6 crash of a commuter plane in Alaska that killed all 10 people on board and the Jan. 26 midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at National Airport that killed all 67 aboard the two aircraft.
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Associated Press reporter Julie Walker contributed from New York. Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine. Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland.