American Airlines Airbus Suffers Bird Strike: Pilots Declare Mayday
Intro
On October 31st, 2024, an American Airlines flight from Boston to Logan to Washington National Airport suffered a bird strike. Bird strikes are not an abnormal occurrence in aviation, and thus, aircraft are designed to still be able to fly after suffering a bird strike. However, there is a part of the story that I find quite interesting.
The Details
On a sunny Thursday on the East Coast, American Airlines was operating an A319 with 94 passengers and crew onboard. Almost the whole flight remained routine, with the cursing altitude set at 32,000 feet and the classic Potomac River approach at National Airport.
Everything was perfectly routine until 300 feet from touchdown when the flight deck encountered what they believed to be a bird strike. With moments until landing, the flight deck decided to initiate a go-around.
The flight deck declared "mayday," and the decision was made to head over to Washington Dulles airport, probably due to the longer runway at Dulles in case there were any issues (is my guess). The American Airlines A319 touched down 20 minutes later with no reported injuries or fatalities.
The A319 in question, tail number N814AW, sat on the ground to undergo checks for a week before heading back to Charlotte.
My Thoughts
The runway at DCA is much shorter than the 19L runway the A319 touched down on at Dulles. In addition, the DCA airport is a fast-paced airport downtown. The flight deck opting to divert to Dulles was the smarter move in case of any failure in the rate of climb since they would have to presumably fly over some of the government buildings in DC.
I have to say, I wonder how severe the flight deck thought this incident was. Granted, I also have no idea.
Interestingly, American Airlines only serves two destinations out of Dulles, which consist of Charlotte (4x daily) and Dallas (2 daily). On both of those routes, no A319s operate, so this is the first AA A319 we have seen at Dulles for a while!
Final Thoughts
While bird strikes remain quite common in the aviation world, a recent incident took place where an American Airlines A319 had to divert after the flight deck declared mayday. Presumably, this was due to the shorter runway of DCA compared to IAD, but I'll be interested to find out the exact details as they come out.
Commentaires