Once Endangered Bird In Mid-Air With AAL Flight

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and is ingested in a commercial aircraft engine like a duck, then is it a duck?

In the case of an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas Super 80 departing Chicago (IL) last week, the answer was no. It was a double-breasted cormorant. The bird was once close to extinction (well, in fact, this particular bird IS extinct) and was, at one time, on the federal list of endangered species.

So what's the difference between a duck and a cormorant?

"Our expert said that a cormorant is chunkier, meatier and has more bones than a looser, watery bird," said American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "Once ingested by the engine, it would have a harder time getting through the fan blades of the turbine."

That's just what happened after the Super 80 (file photo of type, below) departed O'Hare and was climbing through 3000 feet. The crew reported running into a flock of... oh, whatever the hell they were... and then felt the strike as the bird was ingested into the aircraft's left engine.

Fortunately, the crew managed to set back down at O'Hare, without any help from the number one engine. No one was hurt.

FMI: www.aa.com, www.audubon.org