A Delta Airlines Boeing 767-300, registration N152DL performing flight DL-248 from Salt Lake City, UT (USA) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) with 223 people on board, departed Salt Lake City’s runway 34L when the aircraft flew through a flock of large birds, the right-hand engine (CF6) ingested at least one of the birds. The crew stopped the climb at 6000 feet and returned to Salt Lake City for a safe landing on runway 34L about 12 minutes after departure. One of the birds was hanging out of the right engine’s bypass duct.
One passenger believed they had flown through a flock of pelicans, another passenger believed this had been a flock of geese.
