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Boston-Bound JetBlue Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Buffalo Due to Reported Bird Strike

A Boston-bound JetBlue flight had to make an emergency landing in Buffalo Thursday morning after a reported bird strike.

According to WGRZ-TV, JetBlue Flight 2216 left Buffalo Niagara International Airport for Boston at about 6 a.m. Officials said the reported bird strike happened about 10 minutes into the flight.

A passenger on board the plane, Jesse Murszewski, told NBC10 Boston she was headed to Boston Calling for the weekend and noticed the loud noise right away.

"I noticed right away there was like a loud noise coming from the engine and then we dropped power. And I could tell because we actually started losing altitude — like a constant drop in altitude," Murszewski said.

She said passengers were advised of the possibility of the bird strike over the loudspeaker. 

"They advised that there was a potential bird strike. We landed, and sure enough, they had an emergency ground crew and people waiting for us — firefighters," Murszewski recalled.

Despite the plane suffering a cracked engine blade, Murszewski said she wasn't scared during the incident.

"It wasn't scary, it wasn't bumpy, it wasn't terrifying at all, it was more or less 'Well, that kind of explains why we were hearing that really, really, really awful noise coming from the pilot side of the plane,'" she said.

The plane was able to land safely, but it's unclear if it suffered any major damage.

JetBlue issued a statement a few hours after the incident:

"On May 24, 2018, Flight #2216 from Buffalo to Boston experienced a bird strike shortly after takeoff. Out of an abundance of caution, the captain returned to Buffalo Airport where the plane landed safely. The aircraft will be inspected by maintenance. All customers will be accommodated on other flights."  

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