Birdstrike
-
I recently found a post on another forum with photo birdstrikes to planes. It's amazing, but also freaky, because it could happen to anyone I guess! poor birds http://www.mxpairport.it/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=3513
-
Honey, I brought some chicken for dinner!
-
Some years ago I was flying a Cessna 152 (little 2-seater) and nearly hit a bald eagle. I didn't see him until he was extremely close. He went just under the left wing. I think I left a mark on the seat of the plane.
-
Hi,
I work for an aircraft maintenance company and the most damage come from the rare breed called 'ground crew baggage handlers'. The amount of damage these guys cause is inbelievable. It is not going to affect flight but make my job a pain!
Few years ago though I saw a plane which flew through a severe hailstorm. I think it was an easyjet and there's pics somewhere on the web
-
Easyjet hailstone damage
-
Many years ago I was working as an engine tech in CFB Cold Lake and got to see first hand the devistation that a Blue Heron can do to a F404 GE400 engine when ingested at around 600 knots. The engine pretty much became a hollow core. Didn't save anything from that engine
Also had a bird strike on a left wing pylon that was pretty cool. There is a cannon plug at the leading edge just inside a square hole. The entire bird buried itself into the cannon plug with no other external damage. As you can imagine there was a bit more internal damage on the other side of the cannon plug
-
Most birdstrikes do minimal to no damage. I've hit 5 seagulls that unfortunately picked the final approach path in the late evening to have a gathering. Couldn't see them until they were lit up by the landing lights, by then it was too late. They met the aircraft at about 150 Kts as we were slowing down to approach speed. All but one left messy smears on the airframe. The one that did do some damage hit the main strut for the gear so precisely that it ripped a stainless steel hydraulic line free of it's mount and left it whistling in the breeze. Luckily, there was no loss of system integrity and the line was held in place by the remaining fixtures.
We have a few birdstrikes a month company-wide, I've never heard of one doing serious damage.
-
Years ago (76 I think) I was at the Farnborough Air Show watching the big show; Harriers dancing in the sky, the Red Arrows, booth babes etc. Then a specially prepared USAF F15 rolled out to show off how fast it could climb. No armaments, minimal fuel load , that sort of thing. He made a fast run, lifted a few feet off the deck, rotated to near vertical and barely missed crunching his tail, aimed at the stars and WHAM! Birdstrike! I was watching through binoculars and saw a crow go in and debris come out the back, on fire. Fortunately for the pilot there was enough thrust from the intact engine+burner to get him up and out of trouble so he could flop round a very short circuit and land in one piece. That must have stained his underwear fairly seriously - you really don't want a crisis with a large crowd of general public in blast range.
-
I know a fellow who flew 737s for US Air and Piedmont before that. He hit a goose while at cruise altitude one night. It hit just above the windscreen and made a pretty good sized dent knocking out some electronics. They found blood and a few feathers after landing.
I know of another fellow flying a little 4 place grumman out in California. He hit a condor which ended up in the back seat. It was still alive and not very pleased about the situation. The pilot managed to land the plane alright. He was covered in condor exrement, vomit and blood and was pretty badly scraped up by the bird. If I remember correctly, both pilot and condor survived the entire ordeal.
-
There are a number of videos on youtube of aircraft ingesting birds. Here's a couple of interesting ones.
Boeing 757: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhZwsYtNDE
Single engine fighter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc-XiO4ojzk
Pelican vs Edge 540: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRRkBNf8T9w
Advertisement