American Airlines Flight Hit a Sign During Take-Off

by Alex Temblador
Last updated: 12:30 PM ET, Thu April 11, 2019

Flying comes with plenty of fears for many travelers - your plane hitting something during take-off is just one of those fears, and that's exactly what happened with an American Airlines flight on Wednesday.

American Airlines Flight 300 was departing New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at 8:40 p.m. for Los Angeles International Airport when the plane hit a sign next to the runway, according to Port Authority spokesperson, Steve Coleman.

Coleman explained that the plane was slightly off-center during its take-off and that the sign is meant to direct pilots going down the runway.

The plane turned around and landed at JFK just 29 minutes after take-off. Of the 101 passengers and eight crew members on board, no one was injured.

@AmericanAir flight 300 out of JFK just emergency landed and there's a big chunk out of the wing. Ground crew sent us to the lounge and they just don't care. Way to treat an Exec Plat. pic.twitter.com/T9Sue7I79z

- Melanie Whitaker (@melimelo_01) April 11, 2019

"American is swapping flight 300 to a new aircraft, as our team reviews the incident and inspects the aircraft," American Airlines said in a statement. "We never want to disrupt our customers' travel plans and we are sorry for the inconvenience.

Passenger Melanie Whitaker took a photo of the plane's damaged wing, allegedly from hitting the sign, and shared it on Twitter.

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