WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) – The Air Force Two plane
carrying Vice President Joe Biden was struck by birds in
California on Thursday, a spokeswoman for his office said, but
it landed without problem and the vice president, passengers and
crew were safe at all times.
The incident occurred on Thursday night as Air Force Two was
landing in Santa Barbara, California. A person familiar with the
situation said the landing felt normal to people on board.
“The vice president left Santa Barbara this afternoon as
scheduled, aboard an alternate U.S. Air Force aircraft,” the
spokeswoman said.
Lieutenant Gregg Johnson of the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews
Air Force Base in Maryland, which is responsible for
transporting the president, vice president and other senior U.S.
officials, said the crew and passengers of Air Force Two had
been “safe at all times.”
“There was no emergency – no emergency landing declared,” he
said, adding it was not possible at this stage to characterize
the level of damage, if any, that the modified Boeing 757
aircraft sustained in the bird strike.
Another bird strike on Thursday forced a Delta Air Lines
flight bound for Los Angeles to make an emergency return to New
York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
In January 2009, a US Airways flight made a successful
emergency landing in the Hudson River after it struck a flock of
geese shortly after take-off from New York’s LaGuardia airport.
All 155 passengers and crew survived.
Air safety incidents involving the U.S. president or vice
president are rare, but not unprecedented.
Air Force One aborted a landing due to bad weather while
carrying President Barack Obama to an event in Connecticut last
May. One month earlier, an aircraft carrying first lady Michelle
Obama was ordered to abandon its landing approach to Andrews Air
Force Base in order to avoid another plane.
(Reporting By Alister Bull; Editing by Peter Cooney)
