JetBlue Plane Emergency Landing At JFK Due To Bird Strike

A plane has landed safely at New York's Kennedy Airport after a reported bird strike, according to USA Today.

The agency which runs the airport, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the JetBlue flight reported the bird strike Friday morning, according to spokesman Joe Pentangelo, USA Today reported.

JetBlue says Flight 671 was heading from New York's Westchester County Airport to Palm Beach International Airport, according to USA Today.

The flight took off at 9:05 a.m. and the Airbus A320 collided with the bird roughly 25 minutes later, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, USA Today reported.

It says the captain decided to divert the flight to JFK as a precaution, USA Today reported. It landed there around 9:55 a.m.

JetBlue says the 142 passengers were given the option of getting another flight or being taken back to Westchester County, according to USA Today.

The FAA, which will handle an investigation into the strike, did not identify the species of bird, USA Today reported.

On Jan. 15, 2009 a U.S. Airways flight that departed La Guardia for Charlotte, N.C. struck a flock of Canada Geese, according to USA Today. Pilot Sully Sullenberger made a flawless emergency landing in the Hudson River, and all 155 passengers and crew survived.

The incident led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services agency to capture and exterminate hundreds of geese living in city parks, most notoriously at Brooklyn's Prospect Park in 2010, USA Today reported.

More recently, avian advocates have taken the federal agency to court for issuing a permit to the Port Authority to kill migratory birds at JFK and La Guardia, including snowy white owls, according to USA Today.