Southwest Boeing 737 with 142 passengers encounters birds' strike

A Boeing 737 belonging to Southwest Airline with 142 passengers and crew was forced to make an emergency landing at Baltimore –Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport after a bird strike left a hole in one of the plane’s wings.

The plane suffered a bird strike over Anne Arundel County, causing panic among people who saw it form the ground.

A private pilot who lives in Pasadena said he saw the plane as it approached BWI-Marshall and he heard a frightening noise said "It sounded like a large automatic weapon going off, like a hammering sound. It was indicative of a bird being ingested into an engine."

We could look up and see the Southwest 737 aircraft," said Mike Mulcahy of Pasadena.

The pilot of Southwest Airlines Flight 3118 from San Antonio declared an emergency and at the end of its three-hour flight the plane was met by emergency vehicles as a precaution upon landing without incident at the airport south of central Baltimore. The plane was taken out of service for inspections.

BWI-Marshall was a scheduled stop for the plane, and Detroit-bound passengers were switched to another aircraft.