( CNN ) -- A Southwest Airlines plane made an emergency return to Tennessee 's Nashville International Airport on Monday morning because it hit several birds during takeoff , the airline said . The captain of Flight 3387 , which had been bound for Baltimore-Washington International Airport , declared an emergency after birds entered one of the Boeing 737 's two engines , Southwest spokeswoman Michelle Agnew said . The plane , which had taken off from the Nashville airport at 6:35 a.m. , made a safe landing there shortly afterward , Agnew said . Firetrucks met the plane as a precaution , but the landing was uneventful , Southwest said . The plane was put out of service for maintenance , and the airline said it was working on other ways to get the plane 's 110 passengers to their destination . Agnew said she did n't know exactly how the bird strike affected the engine . `` Bird strike '' is the term used for incidents in which planes collide with birds . Often the creatures get sucked into a plane 's engine . A record 10,726 wildlife strikes by airplanes -- 97 % of which involved birds -- were reported in the United States in 2012 , according to the Federal Aviation Administration . One of the most famous bird-plane encounters in recent years resulted in the `` Miracle on the Hudson . '' On January 15 , 2009 , US Airways Flight 1549 left New York 's LaGuardia Airport and ran into a flock of geese that damaged both engines , forcing the crew to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River . Rescuers reached the aircraft and found passengers standing on its wings . Everyone was rescued .
NEW : Birds went into one of the plane 's one engines , Southwest spokeswoman says . A Baltimore -bound CNN plane makes an emergency landing in Baltimore . The plane had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport when it hit birds , airline says . The plane landed safely , Southwest says .