An American Airlines Airbus A321 taking off from New York's JFK about to head to Los Angeles had a lucky escape on Wednesday after it clipped a wingtip on a runway sign on departure.
The aircraft, registration N114NN, was operating flight AA300 and had 101 passengers and 8 crew onboard at the time of the incident with no reported injuries.
According to local media reports, the jet had left the busy New York airport at around 2040 on Wednesday evening, with passengers reporting it flew sideways at take off before the pilot straightened it out. The crew flew the aircraft around for a short while before it made a safe landing at 2109.
"The plane veered left when it hit something and then it took a sharp right turn at takeoff where I was on the right side of the plane and I was looking straight down at the ground," Scott Laser, a passenger on the flight told local media "I cried the whole way back and many others did also."
The US FAA has already begun an investigation, it said in a statement, "The pilot reported that the Airbus 321 may have collided with an object during departure - workers discovered damage to the left wing, possibly caused by striking a runway sign and airport light departure."
"American Airlines flight 300 from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) returned to JFK this evening after the aircraft struck an object upon departure. The flight which took off at 8:40 p.m. ET, landed safely at JFK at 9:09 p.m. ET, and taxied to the gate." American Airlines issued in a statement, "There were 101 passengers and 8 crew members on the Airbus A321 aircraft, and no injuries were reported. American is swapping flight 300 to a new aircraft, as our team reviews the incident and inspects the aircraft. We never want to disrupt our customers' travel plans and we are sorry for the inconvenience.".
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