American Airlines Plane Catches Fire Due to Bird Strike: 'The Engine Started Making Real Loud Noises' Video of the engine fire was captured on a passenger's cellphone.

By Sam Silverman

Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.

A Phoenix-bound American Airlines flight was derailed after the aircraft struck a flock of birds and disabled one of the engines onboard.

The incident took place on April 23 around 8 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration told ABC News, less than 20 minutes after the plane departed from Ohio's John Glenn Columbus International Airport, according to Flight Aware.

Shortly after the fire, which was captured on video by passengers onboard, the plane returned back to the airport safely and was taken out of service. The FAA is investigating the incident, per ABC News.

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According to NBC News, the Boeing 737-800 had 173 passengers and crew on board and was carrying 30,000 pounds of fuel. No injuries were reported.

The bird strike could be heard from inside the cabin, passenger John Fisher told NBC affiliate WCMH of Columbus.

"Apparently we struck a flock of geese and the engine started making real loud 'clonk, clonk, clonk' noises," he told the outlet. "They eventually turned the engine off and turned around and went back to the airport."

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According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, bird strikes are a "real and not uncommon danger" with 112,815 reported bird and wildlife strikes in the last 20 years, and 350 fatalities of U.S. passengers in the history of aviation.

Additionally, bird strikes cost the aviation industry $330 million and 500,000 hours of downtime per year.
Sam Silverman

Content Strategy Editor

Sam Silverman is a content strategy editor at BIZ Experiences Media. She specializes in search engine optimization (SEO), and her work can be found in The US Sun, Nicki Swift, In Touch Weekly, Life & Style and Health. She writes for our news team with a focus on investigating scandals. Her coverage and expertise span from business news, BIZ Experiencesship, technology, and true crime, to the latest in entertainment and TV news. Sam is a graduate of Lehigh University and currently resides in NYC. 

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