Bird strike happens again in Denver

February 4, 2009 – 1:01 am – No Comment

A United Airlines flight from Denver to San Francisco had to turn around and land back at Denver’s airport Tuesday due to another “bird strike.”

Unlike the bird strikes that took down the “Hudson Miracle,” this plane never lost power to the one engine that sucked in the bird. The pilot of the Denver flight just wanted to make sure everything was fine.

Bird strikes are common, and while it is better to be safe than sorry in many occasions, the story out of New York probably has many people nervous about it happening. While it doesn’t say how many strikes were birds or if they were sucked into the engine, the FAA reported 257 “wildlife aircraft strikes” from the Denver airport just last year.

The thing is, you always hear stories about the “bad” airplane experiences…failing engines, bird strikes, crash landings, etc…but the news doesn’t report how many flights take off and land every day without incident. That’s just something we all have to remember. We’re much more likely to land safely than not.