Continental Plane Makes Emergency Landing After Bird Strike

A Continental Airlines airplane made an emergency landing this morning at Washington Dulles International Airport after a bird was sucked into one of its engines.

The Houston-bound flight was taking off from Washington's Reagan National Airport when the bird strike occurred. The plane landed safely 17 minutes later at Dulles airport, Continental spokesman Andrew Ferraro tells AOL Travel News.

The 737-800 had 44 passengers and six crew onboard. No one was injured in the incident.

Ferraro says passengers were being put on other flights out of Dulles. Meanwhile, the bird strike engine was being examined for damage.

The type of bird involved in the incident had not yet been identified.

A D.C. fire department spokesman tells the Associated Press the agency received a call about a plane with engine problems flying just outside the nation's capital.

Last March, on consequtive days, a Continental Boeing 777 in Newark, N.J. and a US Airways Airbus A319 in Rochester, N.Y. made emergency landings after colliding with migrating Canadian geese.

In December, a Washington D.C.-bound US Airways flight from Fort Lauderdale was forced to return to the Florida airport after a bird strike to an engine.

No one was injured in any of the incidents.