A small bird caused big problems for a recent flight. Nick Thomas, a passenger who was on board the Dec. 12 American Airlines flight 1722, took to social media to share a video of the moment a bird flew into the plane’s engine.
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The clip showed the plane taking off from LaGuardia Airport without incident. However, as the flight began ascending, a bird came out of nowhere. The animal was sucked into the engine, and a bright burst of light followed.
The local ABC affiliate reported that, after the pilot became aware of the incident, he contacted air traffic control.
“It appears we have an engine failure, but we’re still kind of working through to figure out what’s going on,” he said, per the outlet. “We hit birds on the way out.”
The plane redirected to JFK Airport, where they landed using only one engine, per the outlet. The 196 people aboard the aircraft, who were traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina, were uninjured, the outlet reported.
Passengers were put up in a hotel after the incident, the outlet reported. The flight was moved to the following morning, per the outlet.
American Airlines confirmed to the outlet that “a reported bird strike” was to blame for the situation.
“The aircraft landed safely at JFK where it will be inspected by our maintenance team,” the airline told the outlet. “We are grateful to our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this may have caused.”