American Airlines flight from LaGuardia to Chicago aborts takeoff after crew reports bird strike

An American Airlines plane was forced to abort its takeoff from LaGuardia Airport on Thursday after the crew reported striking a bird, federal aviation officials said.

The reported strike, which involved a Boeing 737-800 jet bound for Chicago O’Hare International Airport, occurred around 8:20 a.m., according to a Federal Aviation Administration statement posted on the agency website.

The plane was not yet airborne but had begun its "takeoff roll," an aviation term meaning the aircraft was accelerating from standstill to an airspeed that provides sufficient lift for it to become airborne.

American Airlines' media office did not immediately comment.

It was not known how many passengers and crew were on the flight, the type of bird that may have been involved, or whether the jet sustained any damage. Also not immediately known late Thursday: whether passengers and crew had boarded another flight to complete the trip.

Collisions between birds and aircraft are relatively common, with 24,447 logged in 2025, a 9.3% increase from 2024, according to the FAA, which maintains a bird strike database. Often strikes cause no damage to planes but "ingestion" of birds can disable a plane’s engines, as occurred in the "Miracle on the Hudson" flight in 2009 when pilots of US Airways Flight 1549 were forced to ditch in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia.

Bird strikes were blamed for 649 deaths on 342 aircraft from 1990 through 2025, according to the FAA.

At LaGuardia this year through July, the FAA logged 94 bird strikes, most of which caused no damage to aircraft. The strikes involved a variety of bird species.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.