Myrtle Beach Bird Strike Forces American Airlines 737 to Return

An American Airlines Boeing 737-800 declared a Mayday shortly after leaving Myrtle Beach International Airport when the left hand engine malfunctioned during the initial climb.

The crew later told controllers they believed the aircraft had struck birds during the takeoff roll.

The Departure and the Mayday Call at Myrtle Beach

Flight AA1760 lifted off from Myrtle Beach runway 18 bound for Charlotte, North Carolina with 181 people on board.

Moments into the climb the crew declared a Mayday and reported a malfunction on the captain’s side engine.

The pilots added that they may have hit birds around the midpoint of the runway.

They stopped the climb at 2,000 feet and held the aircraft within easy reach of the airport while they worked the checklist and prepared the cabin.

The crew then brought the aircraft back to runway 18 and landed safely around 20 minutes after departure.

Everyone on board walked away unharmed as per The Aviation Herald.

Passengers Report Flames and Loud Bangs

Passengers described streaks of flame from the left engine accompanied by a series of loud bangs.

Those symptoms point towards a compressor surge, which occurs when the smooth airflow through the engine core breaks down and combustion gases push forward through the compressor.

Bird ingestion is one of the classic triggers.

Soft tissue and bone disrupt the airflow across the fan and compressor blades, and the engine can surge repeatedly until the crew reduces thrust or shuts it down.

Myrtle Beach Runway Inspection Confirms Bird Strike

Airport staff inspected runway 18 after the landing and found bird debris on the surface.

The FAA has recorded the occurrence as a bird strike.

Myrtle Beach sits directly on the South Carolina coast, and airports along that stretch of shoreline deal with gulls and other seabirds throughout the year.

Wildlife teams use habitat control, pyrotechnics and radar monitoring to keep birds clear of the departure and approach paths, but the risk never disappears entirely.

The Aircraft Involved

The aircraft is N825NN, a Boeing 737-823 with winglets carrying manufacturer serial number 31087 and line number 3178.

Boeing built the airframe at Renton and flew it for the first time on 4 February 2010.

American Airlines took delivery on 19 February 2010 and ferried the jet from Boeing Field to Chicago O’Hare.

The airframe is now 16.5 years old, wears fleet number 3FC and flies behind a pair of CFM56-7B24 engines.

The cabin holds 16 first class seats alongside 156 in the main cabin.

American recovered the flight with an Airbus A319-100, registration N832AW. That aircraft reached Charlotte with a delay of seven and a half hours.

What Happens Next

N825NN remained on the ground at Myrtle Beach roughly 28 hours after landing.

That timeline suggests engineers are working through a detailed inspection of the affected CFM56, including a borescope of the fan and compressor stages.

Damage of that severity often forces an engine change, which means moving a spare powerplant and a maintenance team to a station that does not normally handle work of that scale.

Until the inspection concludes, the aircraft stays parked.

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