Passenger Captures Bird Strike That Forces LA-Bound Flight To Make Emergency Landing
NEW YORK (CBS) — A Delta flight, bound for Los Angeles, made an emergency landing Thursday at John F. Kennedy International Airport because of a bird strike.
The FAA said Delta Flight 1063, a Boeing 757, declared an emergency for an engine related problem shortly after takeoff at 3:10 p.m.
"It was absolutely terrifying," Grant Cardone, author and Huffington Post contributor, told KNX 1070.
Podcast
"I picked up my iPad and for some odd reason, started videoing the takeoff of this flight. The next thing I see come across the iPad screen is a flock of black birds hit the engine. It sounded like cars going through the engine of the plane. And maybe four or five seconds later . . . the plane just goes up and down like we hit really really bad weather, then we smelled fire and I thought it was coming through the plane." (To watch Cardone's video of the incident, click here.)
Officials said the cabin filled with smoke, and the pilot turned around immediately.
The pilot could be heard in an air traffic control recording, "Delta 1063 has had an engine failure on the right engine declaring an emergency due to a bird strike."
The air traffic control tower responded, "Delta 1063 we have declared an emergency engine failure on the right engine."
The pilot then informed air traffic control that the plane was carrying 179 people -- 172 passengers and 7 crew members.
Delta said the flight landed at JFK without incident. No injuries were reported.
When Cardone walked off the plane he filmed another video, saying, "...hit the right engine, the plane shook -- I thought we were coming down. I choked on the video and closed it and went to grab my phone to see if I had reception because I was literally calling my wife to say, 'Hey...this may be my last flight,' I was that scared."
The airline was working on getting the passengers on another flight.
"The Delta pilots did an unbelievable job, everybody was very calm, the passengers were great," Cardone said.
