Maybe he was referring to a Qantas Electra who made a quick return to SYD after a massive gull strike.
I worked on one as a very young apprentice and we spent all day scraping of the bird remains and pulling them out of the engine inlets. I know that they lost at least one engine but I'm not sure if there were more. I know that the crew were decidly unimpressed at the time with the bird sanctuary on the lakes at the airport.
Wunwing