An Alaska Airlines plane headed to Everett, Wash., aborted its takeoff from the Los Angeles International Airport Tuesday morning after it struck a bird, the airline said.
The Horizon Air Flight 2052 headed to Seattle Paine Field International Airport halted its departure around 10:30 a.m. According to an LAX media liaison, the pilots cleared the runway and returned to the terminal.
“We are swapping guests to another available aircraft,” the airline said in an email statement. “We apologize for any concern or inconvenience this experience may have caused.”
The aircraft is an Embraer E75, which can hold up to 76 passengers and four crew members. But the airline has yet to confirm the number of passengers aboard.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the bird collision. Using volunteer-based reporting, the FAA maintains a database to analyze trends, wildlife movement and bird migration.
From 2022 to 2023, the agency documented a 14% increase in wildlife strikes as travel restrictions were being lifted after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to its annual report published June 2024.
More than 290,000 wildlife strikes took place in the United States between 1990 and 2023. About 651 different types of bird species were identified as struck by an aircraft within that 34-year period. The most commonly struck birds were waterfowl, raptors and gulls.