A United Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner has received a bird strike whilst climbing out of San Fransisco. The aircraft registration is N24974. Flight UA-1 from San Francisco, CA (USA) to Singapore (Singapore), was climbing out of San Francisco’s runway 28R when upon contacting departure the crew advised they had about 4-5 bird strikes on departure.
The aircraft continued the climb, was cleared to climb to FL340 however stopped the climb at FL300 advising they had a couple of bird strikes on departure and were consulting with the company and wanted to return to San Francisco. The crew advised they were concerned about the integrity of the airframe, the bird strikes occurred when the flaps were down. The aircraft dumped fuel and landed safely back on San Francisco’s runway 28L about 80 minutes after departure. The aircraft vacated the runway and stopped for an inspection by emergency vehicles.
© Cole Mellot