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United Airlines Airbus A319 was forced to land back in Newark after suffering a bird strike during its climb after taking off. The aircraft reportedly suffered significant damage to its left wing and remains on the ground since the accident.
United A319 bird strike damages wing
The United A319, registered as N834UA, was operating Flight UA2053 from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) on Thursday evening when a bird strike occurred at some point during the aircraft’s climb out of Newark. According to an AvHerald report, the impact happened at around 9,000ft and the flight crew advised Air Traffic Control (ATC) they wanted to level off at 10,000ft.
Photo: Flightradar24
According to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) release, the bird strike led to a “pretty good dent” in the aircraft’s mid-left leading edge slat, which the report went on to say amounted to “substantial damage.” The FAA stated,
“Aircraft struck bird on departure, returned to land and a large dent was observed on the mid left leading edge slat.”
So far, no images of the wing have emerged, so it is difficult to determine just how severe the damage was. Simple Flying has reached out to United Airlines for comment and will update this story accordingly.
Bird strike classified as an accident
The vast majority of bird strikes are classified as ‘incidents’ as, although they can force an aircraft to make a precautionary landing, they don’t cause any substantial damage. However, on rare occasions, bird strikes will lead to significant damage or threaten the safety of a flight, leading to its classification as an ‘accident.’
Related
5 Famous Bird Strike Incidents From Throughout Aviation History
These range from fatal crashes to miraculous saves.
In fact, according to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) study of bird strikes between 2008-2017, only 0.1% were classified as accidents, and 0.03% categorized as serious incidents. Of 16,626 confirmed bird strikes during this period, only nine led to minor injuries to passengers or crew, and there were no serious injuries or fatalities reported.
However, it’s no secret that bird strikes are a relatively common occurence in commercial aviation, and this is understandable given there are over 100,000 commercial flights across the world every single day. While the threat to life and safety is thankfully quite low, bird strikes cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage every year.
About the 23-year-old A319 airframe
The affected aircraft, N834UA, is approaching 24 years old having been delivered to United Airlines in February 2021. It has spent its entire service life at UA and is fitted with 12 first class seats (2-2 configuration) and 114 in economy.
As per data from ch-aviation, the aircraft has accumulated over 71,000 flight hours and 31,500 flight cycles during its 23 years in service for United.
