An American Airlines flight bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, made an emergency landing back in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Monday after a bird strike sent flames shooting from one of its engines shortly after takeoff. All 181 people aboard flight 1760, including 172 passengers, were unhurt, according to the airline.
The Boeing 737 departed Myrtle Beach International Airport around 8:40 a.m. local time when it struck a flock of birds during climb-out. Air traffic control recordings obtained from LiveATC.net captured the pilot declaring an emergency: "Mayday, mayday, mayday. We've got an engine problem here," the pilot said while requesting a priority return to the airport, according to CNN and ABC News.
Another pilot flying nearby radioed air traffic control that he saw the American Airlines jet ingest birds into its left engine. "I saw he took up birds, it looked like, at least in the left side engine," the pilot said, per CNN. Passenger Patrick Gotwalt recorded video showing flames coming from the engine as the aircraft flew over water, while Lindsey Mackey, who was on the beach at the time, told CNN she heard several loud popping noises and saw orange flashes coming from the plane's left wing.
As the jet circled back toward the airport and emergency crews staged along the runway, ground operations workers discovered a scattering of bird carcasses on the pavement. "We've got a lot of bird debris out here. We're going to grab as many big pieces as we can," a worker said over the radio, according to CNN and USA Today. ABC News reported that a "significant amount" of bird remains and feathers were found during a runway inspection conducted after the flight's departure, and that debris was cleared before the aircraft returned to land.
The plane landed safely without further incident, taxiing to the gate under its own power, and passengers deplaned normally, Myrtle Beach International Airport said in a statement. The airport said its crew reported "possible smoke from an engine shortly after departure" around 8:15 a.m., prompting the return "as a precaution," with emergency response units dispatched to designated staging areas. A runway and taxiway inspection completed immediately afterward is standard procedure, the airport said, adding that no other flight operations were affected.
American Airlines confirmed the safe landing in a statement, saying, "The aircraft landed safely and has been taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team." The airline said no fire or fuel leaks were found during that inspection. Notably, in its initial statement to USA Today, American Airlines characterized the return as being prompted by "a maintenance issue" and did not mention a bird strike or engine fire, though the airline separately confirmed to CNN and ABC News that the crew had reported an engine problem tied to a bird strike. The Federal Aviation Administration later clarified that the flight crew "reported striking a bird while departing," and said the agency would investigate the incident.
American Airlines said it worked to get the displaced passengers to Charlotte as quickly as possible, ultimately transferring them to a replacement aircraft, according to USA Today.
Bird strikes of this kind, while alarming to witnesses and passengers, remain a routine hazard in commercial aviation. ABC News reported that there were 20,876 bird strikes involving civilian aircraft in the United States in 2024, based on a government report released this month. CNN and USA Today cited more recent FAA data showing that wildlife strikes climbed past 24,000 in 2025, a 9.3% increase over the prior year.
The FAA has also detailed which species pose the greatest risk to aircraft. According to the agency, mourning doves are the most frequently struck bird, accounting for roughly 11% of all reported incidents. Waterfowl such as ducks and geese make up a smaller share of total strikes, about 4%, but their size and weight make them disproportionately damaging: the FAA said these birds are responsible for 27% of strikes that actually damage an aircraft.
To help researchers pinpoint exactly which species are involved in strikes like Monday's, remains recovered from the runway and aircraft, often reduced to fragments and feathers known in aviation circles as "snarge," are typically sent to the Smithsonian Institution's Feather Identification Lab in Washington, D.C. Scientists there use the material to identify the species involved, data that the FAA and airlines use to refine strike-prevention strategies at airports, including wildlife management programs designed to keep birds away from runways and flight paths.
The Myrtle Beach incident adds to a growing body of strike data that has drawn increasing attention from aviation regulators as annual incident counts climb. While the vast majority of bird strikes cause little or no damage and rarely threaten flight safety, incidents involving engine ingestion, like Monday's, carry greater risk because a damaged engine can lose thrust or, in rarer cases, catch fire, as passengers aboard flight 1760 witnessed firsthand.
For now, American Airlines said the aircraft remains out of service while its maintenance team completes a full inspection. The FAA's investigation into the strike is ongoing, and the airport said normal operations at Myrtle Beach International were never disrupted despite the emergency landing and runway inspection that followed.
