Plane forced to land after bird strike

FOR LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A Spirit Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after it struck a bird, Friday morning.

Flight 404, carrying 109 people, took off from the local airport en route to Dallas-Fort Worth, when the plane struck a bird while in the air. The plane was then forced to return to the airport.

No injuries were reported and all passengers onboard were placed on other flights.

Officials said the plane was inspected and there was no damage found. The plane is now in service again.

Back in October, an American Airlines flight out of Miami International Airport was forced to make an emergency landing after a bird struck one of the engines. No one was injured in that incident.

Also, in December, a Miami-Dade Police Helicopter came in contact with a bird. The collision shattered the windshield and the pilots were forced to make an emergency landing on the turnpike in Southwest Miami-Dade.

Officials said out of 20,000 flights at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, 41 of them connected with birds. "It is a potentially very serious situation. We have a full-time person here on staff from the USDA that we've hired to help us manage and mitigate any bird issues that we have," said Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport Spokesperson Greg Meyer. "We have parking garages, we have migrating birds, we have Pigeons, we have all types of birds in this area. We are close to the ocean. You have Seagulls, Pelicans, so it's an ongoing challenge, we take it very seriously but considering the number of operations we have here, it's a very small percentage."

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