SFO-Singapore United Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Bird Strike
SAN FRANCISCO INT'L AIRPORT (KPIX 5) – A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Singapore was forced to make an emergency landing back at SFO early Friday morning
Officials said a bird strike occurred shortly after United Flight 1 took off around midnight. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner circled off the coast for about an hour to dump fuel, then returned to SFO around 1:30 a.m.
The plane was able to return to the terminal under its own power.
No injuries were reported, and passengers on the flight appeared calm after returning to the terminal..
"We heard an announcement, the pilot said, 'We had to come back.' He said, 'had we felt anything?' No one beside me did, and neither did I," said passenger Andrew Bulloch. "But apparently a flock of birds had hit the nose of the plane. They had mentioned that the engines could be involved, one or both."
Alex Sandoval, who was also on the flight, said," "To be perfectly honest, the mood on the flight was not of an emergency flight. So it was handled pretty well."
Passengers have been rescheduled for other flights scheduled for later on Friday.
The incident is under investigation.
According to Forbes, the SFO to Singapore flight is among the longest in the world, at 8,446 miles. The journey westbound usually takes 16 hours and 20 minutes, according to an airline statement.