Monday, November 10, 2008

Birdstrikes!


I was just reading about a birdstrike on a Ryanair flight in Rome today. Last November, on Taylor's first trip off O.E., he had his first birdstrike. I blogged about it last year here, but its one of the aviation experiences that Taylor loves to retell. Of all my blog entries that get searched on Google, this experience has the highest search rate. A lot of pilot SO's now read my blog, and I was curious how many of your pilots have experienced a birdstrike??

Here are some pictures from last years birdstrike incident...







Just for fun, here's the story again:
(11/27/07) Yesterday was Taylor's first flight out of O.E. training. He was on reserve for the day with a three-day trip planned for Tuesday. He got called in for a quick out-and-back to Wausau, Wisconsin. It was a cold, snowy day in Detroit...but after an hour and a half of delays and de-icing they took off no problem. But as they came in for the landing approach, Taylor and the captain saw a flash of birds. Within half a second, a group of ducks crashed into the plane. They lost control of the nose wheel door and lost hydraulic system 3. It smashed the radome, went through the nose cone, then the radar, then the bulkhead, ending up in the forward avionics bay. Warnings and error messages were flashing, and luckily they were able to get down the landing gear before the hydraulic system bled out. Passengers snapped pictures of the plane after deplaning on the tarmac. It was one of those "once in a career" moments...and it was on Taylor's first flight out of training.

4 comments:

Lia said...

Oh MAN!!!! That was so yucky, scary, and SCARY!

Ex Wife to a Douchebag - disgusted by his white trash fiance said...

Unfortunately I don't have any yucky pictures to add, but Cpt J sucked a bird in to the engine of the Saab at IAD. He was so excited, not sure why - but excited nonetheless :)

Lori said...

oh yuck! I am flying next Friday. Pray for safe flights for all the holliday travelers and well anybody anytime that is flying (pilot, passanger or crew).

Jen said...

I guess all the excitement with pilots and bird strikes is about the once in a career thing... they all know that it will happen at one time or another and like to check it off the list... At least, that's my interpretation of my hubby's excitement, and yes, he has had bird strikes, but not flying the big planes. His last one that I remember was in a Cessna 172. The bird hit the wing and several wing-ribs had to be replaced. Thank goodness it wasn't our plane (although our insurance would have covered it..)

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