pOkE the pLaNeT

Watched the U.S Air Airbus crash in the Hudson and its a very interesting case from an pilots point of view. One thing I found odd was a figure given on the major media networks that 'planes hit birds about once in every ten thousand flights'? Huh? Try once in every two hundred.

Pilots are not only required to report actual bird strikes but they are also asked to report near strikes. From experience, most pilots I know simply dont bother reporting near misses and I would say only half report actual strikes. It all depends on the standard of airmanship and discipline at a given company, but many guys disregard incidents where a small sparrow size bird strikes a wheel or a wing. If its a larger bird, they will file a report if only to explain the mess along the side of the plane. If it goes down an engine the result depends on the speed of the plane, the size of the bird, and the type of engine. Old military type engines were small and tough, while modern engines are also strong but have large fan blades which present more surface area, increasing the chance of a strike.

If your engine does eat a bird, you usually get a bang and a shudder as the engines blades absorb the shock, and moments later you might get a smell of roasted meat as the carcass passes through the engine and the aroma is pumped into the plane through the bleed air/ air con pack system. One result is often that a blade is now askew, and the result is a vibration that, if powerful enough, will require an engine shutdown. Thats not a problem, as all multi engined planes are certified to fly perfectly well with an engine shut down during all phases of flight.

Losing two engines however is a different matter. In this case it looks like the airliner went through a flock of birds and each engine took a fatal hit. Thats quite remarkable as a statistic and it doesnt happen very often, but when it does its usually geese. I dont know what these birds were but the problem around many airports is they are built near swamps or coastlines or have refuse dumping sites nearby, all of which attract birds. Bird dispersal can involve shooting, sonic cannons, egg collecting, grass cutting to specific height to discourage nesting by certain breeds, falconry and even an automated aerosol unit that sprays a citric acid concoction into the air at regular intervals, which irritates the birds eyes and senses.

The smallest bird Ive knowingly killed has been a rainbow beeater, while the largest was a hornbill which destroyed an engine on an Embraer E110 I was flying at the time. Ive ingested one flying fox (bat) which destroyed a second engine, this time on a Fokker F28, and have probably struck about thirty raptors, mostly New Guinea Kite Hawks in the Markham Valley. The largest bird Ive nearly hit was a pelican which actually flew alongside my Cessna while I was landing, while a close second was a stork that flew across my path from right to left... at eight thousand feet. It was flying across a valley from one mountain range to another. I believe the record for a bird strike is a condor or something similar above 20,000 feet.

Once every ten thousand flights? I have just over 10,000 hours flying experience and reckon Ive hit at least 200 birds.