An airliner bound for India was forced to return to Newark Airport after a bird strike caused one of its engines to catch fire Sunday afternoon, the Port Authority said.
Air India flight 144 took off around 4:25 p.m. was headed to Mumbai when birds were sucked into the plane’s left engine, officials said.
A short time later, the pilot reported the engine was on fire and turned the Boeing 777 around.
“It wasn’t a very smooth takeoff, I thought there was some sort of turbulence… there was some jerking,” said passenger Smita Gadhiya.”I smelled something, like something burning.
Another passenger, a 25-year-old woman who asked not to be identified, said, “there was this loud mini-explosion and the plane started shaking. Then the plane was just hovering over New Jersey for about 10 minutes before we came back. We [passengers] started wondering why we weren’t going anywhere.”
The plane carried 315 passengers.
Crews tried to tow the plane away, but were unable to because it had “multiple” blown tires. It was known what caused the blowouts.
With Post Wire Services