Bird stops plane from taking off after getting sucked into its engine

Look, it’s a bird, it’s a plane! No, it’s … a bird in an airplane’s engine.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Davao manager Agnes Udang said a Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight bound for Manila failed to take off from Davao City yesterday after a bird got sucked into one of its engines.

Bye bye birdie?

According to PAL’s spokesperson Cielo Villaluna, the airline’s PR 814 Davao-Manila flight was pushed back from its parking bay at 1:10pm.

She said: “It taxied towards the main runway then, after [which], [it] executed a takeoff roll on the main runway, but midway experienced a bird strike. ”

A takeoff roll is when an aircraft is already on the runway centerline, moving forward at full speed with the intent of taking off.

The 180 passengers on board flight PR 814 are reportedly safe, and the jet recovered from the bird incident and was brought back to the ramp at 1:34pm.

“Our pilots are trained to respond accordingly and in this case, the decision was to halt the flight and return to ramp,” Villaluna said.

Villaluna also dismissed reports stating that one of the engines exploded. “There is no truth to reports circulating that a PAL aircraft’s engine exploded as it was departing from Davao,” she was quoted by GMA News.

ABS-CBN News reported that the passengers received assistance after the incident and that their flights were rebooked.

No word yet on what happened to the bird but it could not have been pretty as feathers were found in the engine.