Jet Makes Safe Return to L.A. After Mishap With Engine

A Delta Air Lines DC-10 bound for Honolulu made a safe emergency return to Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday when a bird apparently was sucked into an engine during takeoff, an airline spokesman said.

The three-engine jet, Flight 1567, made a safe landing and the passengers were transferred to another plane, Delta spokesman Bill Berry said in Atlanta.

The jet had climbed to 1,000 feet only minutes after taking off at 10:55 a.m. when sensors showed that something had gotten inside the tail-mounted engine, Berry said.

“I had a report from the ground that they saw a puff of smoke coming from the engine,” Berry said.

The captain shut down the turbine and continued climbing for several thousand more feet before turning back and dumping fuel over the Pacific Ocean, Berry said.

Maintenance workers found no exterior damage when they examined the engine, but will take it apart to look at the inside, Berry said.

A bird is believed to have caused the mishap because the tail-mounted engine is too high for ground debris to have hit it, he said.

“The plane can fly well on just one engine,” Berry noted.

According to Delta Customer Service Representative Maria Broer, “Evidently (this type of incident) has happened often at airports located along coastlines. More often than not it’s a gull.”

Broer said birds often will be sucked into the turbines and pass through the blades without incident, a phenomenon called a “clean-bird entry.” However, in the case of a “dirty bird entry,” it can “do a number on the blades and turbine engines,” she said.

All but seven of the original 251 passengers aboard the plane were transferred to another aircraft, which departed at 1:30 p.m., the airline said. The other seven passengers found different flights.