Possible Bird Strike Lands Pittsburgh-Bound Flight
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A flight to Pittsburgh was cut short after a possible bird strike.
US Airways Flight 739, carrying about 140 passengers, took off from Philadelphia, but it was back on the ground 15 minutes later shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday.
Passengers say they heard a noise and they knew something wasn't right just after takeoff.
"We got probably five minutes in the air and there was a loud noise and then we were told that we were going to turn around and come back," Maryellen Stumbaugh, a passenger, said.
Eric Rankin, another passenger, said it seemed routine.
"He told us everything was fine, but precautionary he was going to circle back around," he said.
A spokesman for US Airways says the crew decided to return to the airport because a bird may have hit an engine.
The plane was the same model involved in the Miracle on the Hudson bird strike incident in 2009.
Passengers praised the five crew members aboard Thursday's flight. All of the passengers and crew boarded a new flight and landed in Pittsburgh around 7 p.m. Thursday.
No one was hurt during the ordeal.
