A FedEx cargo airplane caught on fire after striking a bird shortly after the plane’s departure from Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday morning, according to officials.
There were no injuries reported onboard, and the plane made an emergency return to Newark Liberty international airport.
The Boeing 767 in question hit the bird during takeoff, damaging an engine.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that the aircraft, which was headed to Indianapolis, returned to the airport at about 8am eastern time.
A spokesperson told the Associated Press that air traffic was briefly halted as a precaution, but operations resumed a short while later.
About 10 minutes after takeoff, the FedEx plane’s right engine burst into flames, according to data from FlightAware. Bystanders captured the incident from multiple angles, in one instance shouting in shock and swearing as the plane returned to the runway.
“Dude, did you see that?!” one man exclaimed in a video showing the flaming aircraft descending. “Something exploded!”
Another video, filmed from inside a car in New Jersey, shows the plane ablaze as it loses altitude.
Saturday’s emergency return followed a string of recent aviation crashes that have spiked public concern. On 30 January, an American Airlines plane collided with an US army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington DC, killing all 67 people onboard both aircraft.
The Washington collision was the deadliest US aviation disaster since 2009, when a Colgan Air plane crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people onboard and one person on the ground.
Two days after the crash in Washington, seven people were killed after a medical transport plane collided into a north-east Philadelphia neighborhood. Meanwhile, a plane carrying 80 people crashed at Toronto Pearson airport in mid-February, flipping upside down and leaving at least 18 people injured.
Amid rising concerns, Google searches for “is flying safe” have surged. A recent AP-Norc poll, released in February, found that 64% of Americans consider air travel very or somewhat safe, down from 71% last year.
Donald Trump’s second presidential administration escalated tensions further by beginning to fire hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration in mid-February, including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure.
Still, data indicates that 2025 has been a relatively safe year for air travel – at least in terms of total accidents. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, January and February typically see about 20 fatal aviation accidents each month, most of which usually involve small airplanes that operate in a less regulated space.
Article by:Source: Coral Murphy Marcos
