JetBlue Airbus A320 performing flight from Salt Lake City to Long Beach was in the initial climb about to be handed off to departure when the crew reported they had received a bird hit pretty much in the nose area.

They thought they were okay and would continue. They were already climbing past the runway end when the bird hit.

The crew continued the climb but then stopped the climb reporting they were talking to maintenance and needed to return to Salt Lake City due to a maintenance issue following a bird strike, it was too dark to see much, the bird strike was just past the departure end of the runway. The aircraft landed safely back on Salt Lake City’s runway 16L about 40 minutes after departure.

The FAA reported the aircraft received unknown damage to engines (plural) and leading edge (singular) of wings (plural) when it received a bird strike (singular) on takeoff from Salt Lake City.