Southwest flight #WN554 quickly returned to New Orleans following a technical issue.
On 20 December 2023, Southwest flight #WN554 took off from New Orleans to Tampa in Florida.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 (reg. N8830Q) took off from runway 11 when the aircraft received a bird strike into the left hand engine.
Following the bird strike, the engine #1 lost a fan blade.
The pilots stopped the climb at 2,900 feet and contacted ATC requesting a quick return.
The aircraft landed back at New Orleans only 18 minutes after departure.
Following maintenance, the aircraft is scheduled to resume flight operations on December 25th.
