American Airlines reported on April 2nd during climb from Paris , at 12,000 feet, the reference airplane struck multiple birds impacting various locations on the aircraft. One bird entered the flight deck via the P1-1 panel on the captain's left side. All flight controls and systems functioned normally. . The crew elected to return to Paris where an uneventful landing was made. The airplane is currently AOG in Paris.

2 hole on bottom and peeled back sheetmetal on fwd accy bay


 This one is a killer. Went through the skin and into the cockpit. pic coming up

 took out radome

  No explanation

 Punched a hole through the leading edge slat


  Heres the bad one. Just think at 12,000 ft Autopilot could be on by now and boom boom boom
thats the Pilots Fwd inst panel. The previous pic was where the bird entered. Bet he shit his pants.
 
  A few years ago We had a DC-10 take off and went through some Geese. One went through the nose (Radome) took out the weather Radar which is housed under the nose radome. Then also went through the pressure Bulkhead and into the Equipment compartment

  My buddy works QC in Civil Aviation. He sent me these

I'd call it a draw.

Hopefully it hit some Canada geese.  Those things are absolutely worthless!

I have seen them that bad before on our FedEx a/c, but never that many and damn sure never all the way into the flight deck.

That is a lot of birds.

Holy CRAP!  12,000 feet?  Probably over 250kts IAS.  Talk about flak.

Those terrorist ae getting crafty,

They need to make those jets out of better material.

Were they .50 caliber birds?

Do they repair that with duck tape?

Birds fly at 12,000 ft.?  

Bet that was an "Oh Shit!" moment for the crew!

big ass birds.

Quoted: Birds fly at 12,000 ft.?

Yep,
This actually was the subject of a discussion at the pub awhile back. Ducks have been observed at 28,000ft. (I lost that bet)

Quoted: Holy CRAP!  12,000 feet?  Probably over 250kts IAS.  Talk about flak. img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/airwolf144/aflac.jpg

Imagine you traveling at 500knots and a 15-20 bird hitting the airplane.  Its going to do some damage. Hell, my buddy got taken out by a big bug while riding his bike.  Big ass June bug twacked him in the face and he went down like a pile of rocks.

I work for Fedex, and have seen a lot of bird-strike related damage. From singles to a flock of ducks hit at climb-out over Arkansas. Messy. The one I remember most was the goose that went through the radome cover, the antenna, and entered the cockpit, lodging under the Captains seat.
I saw the radome later, but was told that when the Captain left the aircraft, he was COVERED in blood and feathers! Kinda sorry I missed that....

guess it doesnt take a 50 cal huh

That's why you need a propeller up front!

Quoted: Those terrorist ae getting crafty,

'hmmm, why's this swarthy guy got a 1000-lbs of birdseed, hanging around the end of the runway?'

My buddy works for GE in Cinnci and his job is shoot chickens and turkeys out of an air cannon into a spinning engine to see what happens.  I cant think of a cooler job.  He said they use frozen birds sometimes and other times they are defrosted.  He also told me of the windshield manufacturer that does the same thing.  They have a cockpit their glass installed and some gearhead monkey shoots chickens at it all day.

So did the birds make it out alive?

Bet the metal detectors would miss that if towel-head wanted to use organic bullets

I thought this was going to be the video of the MLB pitcher whaling a bird that passed into the path of his fast ball.

Now is this an act of war against the USA from France?

This happened a few years ago, not this past April.

Quoted: Were they .50 caliber birds?

Hmm.

Apparently terrorist don't need .50 BMG rifles after all.

All they need is poultry.

Somebody ban geese!

It's for the children.

Dupe

Holy Bird Crap Batman!

Danny

The worst part of that strike was that the pressure bulkhead was breached. Imagine that at 20,000 feet. Immediate decompression. Fun times.

Quoted: I work for Fedex, and have seen a lot of bird-strike related damage. From singles to a flock of ducks hit at climb-out over Arkansas. Messy. The one I remember most was the goose that went through the radome cover, the antenna, and entered the cockpit, lodging under the Captains seat. I saw the radome later, but was told that when the Captain left the aircraft, he was COVERED in blood and feathers! Kinda sorry I missed that....

I'm guessing they left "Shit" off the list of things he was covered in. Both his and the birds

An AWACS flew through a flock of Canadian geese on takeoff and crashed a few years ago at Elmendorf AFB Alaska. IIRC the investigators concluded that both engines on the left were destroyed by the geese causing the crash.

I bet those birds had on HELLOVA headache the next day!

bump

I cannot believe none of you said it!!!!

"That'll buff right out"

Airplane 10 / Birds 0

Quoted: An AWACS flew through a flock of Canadian geese on takeoff and crashed a few years ago at Elmendorf AFB Alaska. IIRC the investigators concluded that both engines on the left were destroyed by the geese causing the crash.

Policy Change Masks Degrees  
Geese Caused AWACS Disaster

Pacific Air Forces released accident investigation board findings that confirmed earlier speculation that a flock of geese caused the crash of an E-3B Sentry in Alaska on September 22, 1995.

The Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft's two left-wing engines ingested several Canada geese, according to the official report released January 11.

"The result was an immediate, unconfined, catastrophic failure of the number two engine as well as compressor stalls in the number one engine," the report stated. It added that the E-3 began a "slow left-hand climbing turn, struck a hilly wooded area less than one mile off the departure end of the [Elmendorf AFB] runway and broke apart."

The crash killed all twenty-four crew members and destroyed the aircraft. [See "AWACS Crash Claims Twenty-Four Lives," November 1995 "Aerospace World," p. 14.]

What About Human Error?

The report ruled out crew error, stating that "the aircrew did everything humanly possible to fly this aircraft out of an unflyable situation." However, it did note two other factors that "substantially contributed to the accident."

One was the failure of the airfield tower controller to notify the AWACS crew or airfieldmanagement about a flock of geese that had been flushed when a C-130, using the same runway, took off just two minutes before the E-3 began its takeoff roll.

The second factor was that the base "lacked an aggressive program to detect and deter" the presence of the large birds and "did not adequately prepare for the migration season."

According to the report, the 3d Wing mistakenly believed its program was sound, based on an Air Force Safety Agency team's July 1995 endorsement of the wing's written plan to handle potential aircraft birdstrike problems.

Since the accident, according to a PACAF release, base officials have stepped up bird-control efforts to include increasing flight-line patrols and installing sound cannons to disperse the birds.

www.afa.org/magazine/march1996/0396world.asp#anchorone


On September 22, 1995 a 4-engine USAF E-3B AWACS crashed 43 seconds after takeoff from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. The aircraft struck a large flock of Canada Geese that had often been observed in the area.



Canada Geese on the runway shortly after the September 22 AWACS crash. Twenty-four crew members died in the crash.

Quoted: The worst part of that strike was that the pressure bulkhead was breached. Imagine that at 20,000 feet. Immediate decompression. Fun times.

But wait, you mean it didn't cause an Explosive Decompression™ that killed all the passengers and ripped the side off the plane?  If one bullet can rip the side out, imagine what a bird can do!  I bet that plane is missing the whole empennage and at least an engine or two!

Quoted: An AWACS flew through a flock of Canadian geese on takeoff and crashed a few years ago at Elmendorf AFB Alaska. IIRC the investigators concluded that both engines on the left were destroyed by the geese causing the crash.

<obligatory>How in the hell did they determine the geese were Canadian?  Did they find a charred passport at the crash site?  Or did you mean Canada Geese?</obligatory>