LINK: VIEW PHOTOS FROM THE BIRD STRIKE
According to the FAA, more than 9,000 birds are struck every year by planes in the United States, and early Friday morning some Florida-bound passengers in our area learned about that statistic first-hand.
"Just be advised we hit birds off of White Plains," you could hear on the Air Traffic Control tapes.
The emergency began about 9:30 Friday morning on JetBlue flight 671 headed from the Westchester County Airport to Palm Beach, Florida.
"I think we have a little bit of nose damage in the front here," the pilot said.
Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft struck a bird, forcing the pilot to divert the plane to JFK, where it landed shortly before 10am, with no reported injuries among the more than 140 passengers.
Air Traffic Control then diverted the plane to land on runway 22 at JFK.
The pictures certainly tell the story, the carcass of that unlucky bird stuck right near the damaged nose of the plane.
JetBlue gave passengers the option of returning back to Westchester or continuing on to Florida on a different plane. As for the bird, well, let's just say he has reached his final destination.
Certainly, this was a far cry from the most famous bird strike of all time, the famous Miracle on the Hudson back in 2009, that flight brought down by a flock of geese. This latest strike remains under investigation
