# In-Cockpit Video: Bird Strike



## WannaBeFlyer (20 Dec 2005)

I thought some may be interested in this video. (I realize this incident occurred in 2004. I did a search, I hope it has not been posted before.)

*In-Cockpit Video: Bird Strike*

By Glenn Pew 
Newswriter, Editor 

 An AVweb reader recently passed along in-cockpit video of a Canada Air Force CT-155 Hawk before, as, and after its in-flight ingestion of a bird. The aircraft's heads up display is visible, the bird is visible, as is the last image caught on camera -- a farmer's field. Synopsis of the May 14, 2004 accident is available, <a href="http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/dfs/docs/Fti/CT155202_e.asp">here.</a> The accident aircraft carried a crew of two. One student and one instructor pilot. One pilot survived the experience with minor injuries, the other was seriously injured. The video is available <a href="http://www.birdstrikecanada.com/Papers2005/Hawkbirdstrike.avi"> *Here*</a>

Sources: 

<a href="http://www.birdstrikecanada.com/Papers.htm"> Bird Strike Canada </a>

<a href="http://www.avweb.com/newswire/11_33a/briefs/190378-1.html"> AVweb </a>


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## Sf2 (20 Dec 2005)

its been online for a while, but thanks for the link for those who haven't seen it yet.

Very lucky for the crew.


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## FoverF (21 Dec 2005)

Well, the student and IP both kept it together quite well. The bird had barely cleared the intake when they started climbing for altitude. 
Well done.


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## Strike (22 Dec 2005)

I always love ATC's response to their ejection call:
ATC, "Confirm breking out north?"

Let's see, the plane diving to the ground and 2 seatd flying in the air didn't give it away?   ;D


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## FoverF (23 Dec 2005)

"I'm going to say 'eject' three times. If you say anything after that, you'll be talking to yourself".


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## c. kloosterman (8 Mar 2006)

hi, I'm new to this site and computers in general, but if someone can tell me how to insert a pic i can show you a neat pic of 
a bird strike.


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## Guy. E (8 Mar 2006)

[ i m g ]<the url for the image here>[ / i m g ]

without spaces.


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## double0three (8 Mar 2006)

Can someone explain what exactly happened with the bird??

Is there some kind of air in-takes on the sides of the aircraft that the bird got sucked into?


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## WannaBeFlyer (8 Mar 2006)

double0three said:
			
		

> Can someone explain what exactly happened with the bird??



It probably looked like someone was emptying a feather pillow in front of a fan. ;D Sorry couldn't resist.



> Is there some kind of air in-takes on the sides of the aircraft that the bird got sucked into?



I am not sure if you are familiar with the Hawk but it has dual intakes; one on each side. Have a look at the pic. You can see the intake below the cockpit with the red triangle painted on it.

<a href="http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/equip/ct-155/hawk1_e.asp"> More pics of the Hawk </a>


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## Jaxson (8 Mar 2006)

Bet that birdy had a bad day.  >


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## WannaBeFlyer (8 Mar 2006)

Jaxson said:
			
		

> Bet that birdy had a bad day.  >



Actually, I know both student and instructor survived and that the student apparently had minor injuries but I am more curious as to how the instructor is doing now. Apparently, he had numerous serious injuries...


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## double0three (8 Mar 2006)

MikeG said:
			
		

> I am not sure if you are familiar with the Hawk but it has dual intakes; one on each side. Have a look at the pic. You can see the intake below the cockpit with the red triangle painted on it.


Yeah thats what I assumed they were. You'd think air intakes would be powerful enough to shred up the bird up into dust, and be uneventful for the jet.  I wonder what the chances are of this kind of disaster happening when something gets in the way of the air intake... I'm willing to bet it's a one in a million thing...


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## Strike (9 Mar 2006)

It's not the air intakes that shred the bird up, but the engine itself.  One small stone can cause a huge problem on an engine.


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## double0three (9 Mar 2006)

Ah, I figured the air intake got clogged up causing the engine to overheat.  Either way... not a good day for the jet, the pilots OR the bird.


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## George Wallace (9 Mar 2006)

It wouldn't clog up the engine, it would cause damage to the engine turbines, which would then disintergrate causing more catastrophic damage and eventually the engine would explode (Timeframe.....milliseconds.).


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## Zoomie (9 Mar 2006)

Moose Jaw birds aren't your garden variety either - we're talking large snow geese and all sorts of migrating fowl.

The larger turbo-prop engines can eat a seagull without coughing - we still land ASAP though.

An E-3 Sentry AWACS bird out of Elmendorf ate an entire flock after rotation - it took enough birds into enough engines to cause a catastrophic failure and unfortunately the entire crew died in the resulting crash.  Bird strikes are a very serious affair - this is why we employ a "bird man" at every base who uses falcons and other means of getting rid of pesky birds.


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## Blue Max (9 Mar 2006)

Recently there was a videoed incident with a civilian airliner sitting at the terminal. A mechanic was finishing up some work on one of the engines and I believe he took a shortcut in front of the spooled up engine. He was sucked in like from a cartoon. Some red crap came out the other end, the engine stalled and the aircraft did not leave that day.  

After the tragic accident the investigators pointed out that this sort of accident does happen occasionally.


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## Astrodog (9 Mar 2006)

I've also seen a vid from a carrier where a deck hand gets sucked into an A-6s intake, but miraculously survived and was spit out the other side!


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## Zoomie (9 Mar 2006)

Astrodog - I have read about the incidents onboard USN carriers - the crew don't get spit out the other side, that is impossible (without being cut into millions of little pieces.  
In most USN jets (A6, F-18, etc) the air intake gradually gets smaller as it approaches the top of the turbine - the deck crew have been lucky to get themselves wedged in this tight space and extricated after an engine shut-down.


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## ROTP Applicant (9 Mar 2006)

MikeG said:
			
		

> Actually, I know both student and instructor survived and that the student apparently had minor injuries but I am more curious as to how the instructor is doing now. Apparently, he had numerous serious injuries...



He is currently one of the instructors at the CF Instrument Check Pilot School.


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## Astrodog (9 Mar 2006)

Zoomie said:
			
		

> Astrodog - I have read about the incidents onboard USN carriers - the crew don't get spit out the other side, that is impossible (without being cut into millions of little pieces.
> In most USN jets (A6, F-18, etc) the air intake gradually gets smaller as it approaches the top of the turbine - the deck crew have been lucky to get themselves wedged in this tight space and extricated after an engine shut-down.



 Ahhh my mistake... I've seen my fair share of A-6s and EA-6Bs so i found this peculiar as well, it was the info given on one of those 'wildest videos' shows... so i guess consider my sources!


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## fourninerzero (9 Mar 2006)

Astrodog said:
			
		

> I've also seen a vid from a carrier where a deck hand gets sucked into an A-6s intake, but miraculously survived and was spit out the other side!



The unfortunate deckhand was not sucked completely through the engine. What you see in that video exiting through the exhaust is his clothes. he was trapped up against the front cone holding the fan blades on. I had though the same when I first saw that video, but I later saw a documentary on carrier life that showed that video and gave the explanation of what happened, including an interview with the crewman. Unfortunatly I do not remember the name of the documentary.


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## Astrodog (16 Mar 2006)

does ANYBODY know what the (what sounds like) "T6NL" Bitchin' betty audible warning stands for? This has been driving me crazy, nobody seems to know!


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## Crimmsy (16 Mar 2006)

Betty must've been taking hormones the day she recorded those warnings, 'cause she sure sounds manly to me! (But that's not what you asked, so...)

The T6NL warning signals an engine overstress; either TGT (turbine gas temperature) overheat as measured by the T6 thermocouples, or low pressure compressor shaft (NL) overspeed. Hence T6NL.


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## Astrodog (16 Mar 2006)

Crimmsy said:
			
		

> Betty must've been taking hormones the day she recorded those warnings, 'cause she sure sounds manly to me!



  Well she IS british on the hawk! Thanks for the inside info Crimmsy


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## GOF (16 Mar 2006)

Sounds like the pilots got out okay...been on too many where there were fatalities...not fun at all.


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## Zoomie (16 Mar 2006)

Bitchin' Betty is a North American term - the Brits called him Nattering Nigel...


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## Astrodog (17 Mar 2006)

hehe.. that doesn't sound british at all!... Was talking to a hornet driver who was good friends with the IP in the hawk, apparently he busted his leg up pretty bad and was in rough shape, but pretty lucky all things considered... great insight into how well these men handled such circumstances


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## GOF (17 Mar 2006)

Too bad he busted up his leg, but at least he is alive.  With luck he will get his medical category back and fly again.  I've attended too many funerals where the crew did not make it out.


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## GOF (17 Mar 2006)

Yep, a 1/4 inch nut would destroy a jet engine, and those blades are nasty when they let loose and come through the casing.


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## Centurian1985 (13 Apr 2006)

The only time I ever heard our pilots sweat about birdstrikes was is in Honduras; the rotary boys did not like the way that packs of birds would climb out of the jungle canopy if they flew too low (over 6 foot wingspans!).


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## Good2Golf (18 Apr 2006)

FourNinerZero said:
			
		

> The unfortunate deckhand was not sucked completely through the engine. What you see in that video exiting through the exhaust is his clothes. he was trapped up against the front cone holding the fan blades on. I had though the same when I first saw that video, but I later saw a documentary on carrier life that showed that video and gave the explanation of what happened, including an interview with the crewman. Unfortunatly I do not remember the name of the documentary.



It was a green shirt (catapult crew, hook runers, etc...) working on the launch bar of an A-6 , who made the mistake of walking too closely to the intake while standing upright (vice crouching low) -- he was sucked into the intake, but his vest snagged on the inlet icing probe. While his helmet went through and FOD'd the engine, he was hung up on the probe and slid out of the inlet after the pilots shut down the engine.  Ouch!  I bet his ears were ringing for a while! 

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/sucked in engine.avi

Just a note on the Hawk crash:  that's a pretty good example of good cockpit management and dealing with the situation in a calm and methodical manner.  Good on the guys for making sure the aircraft wasn't right on top of Bushell Park (the Q-patch in the Jaw)...

Cheers,
Duey


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## .68 (5 May 2006)

Yep, thats it .. FOD out and its all over.


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## dardt (5 May 2006)

Could someone in the know tell me whether that pitch up immediately following the bird strike was the pilot flying (if so pretty quick reaction on his part) or an automatic feature of the Hawk to gain altitude on engine failure ? Did they still have some power to maintain airspeed and climb, looks like a 20-25 degree pitch ?

Cool heads on their part


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## Inch (5 May 2006)

Nothing automatic. What if you're inverted? You'd become paste before you could do anything about it.

They probably saw the bird and pitched up, you can hear the guy say something like "Aw ...." as the bird got sucked in. The HUD shows them doing 245 knots so there's lots of energy there, first response to an engine failure is to zoom (trading airspeed for altitude) and you can see on the HUD they were around 130 knots in the right hand turn prior to ejecting.


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## dardt (5 May 2006)

Inch said:
			
		

> Nothing automatic. What if you're inverted? You'd become paste before you could do anything about it.



Excellent point, I never thought of that. I don't have any experience being inverted in the C172's I fly.  ;D

I didn't see the A/S on the HUD when I watched it, thanks I'll have another look.

 :cheers:


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## Inch (6 May 2006)

Top left corner of the display.


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## SupersonicMax (6 May 2006)

Didn't they asked for a Closed Left and were cleared for that?  Maybe that's why they pitch up.

Max


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## Good2Golf (6 May 2006)

A quick check of your airspeed and the first reaction is zoom for altitude, trading speed off until you begin to approach your best L/D glide speed.  Tutor IA was "zoom, idle, airstart" (to gain alt, idle to reset the IGVs and airstart to try and reignite idle fuel being injected.  Failing that, if you still had time/altitude, you'd go through a full in-flight re-light procedure if you judged the engine would still run (although taking in a bird and flaming it out was pretty unlikely so most would consider a proper set-up for ejection.  I don't know the Hawk's engine fail IA, but I would think it's pretty similar to the Tute.

Cheers,
Duey


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## Inch (6 May 2006)

SupersonicMax said:
			
		

> Didn't they asked for a Closed Left and were cleared for that?  Maybe that's why they pitch up.
> 
> Max



Closed right on 29R.  

And yes, they were probably in the process of pitching up for that, it all happened kind of concurrently.


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## pipstah (6 May 2006)

zoom => if possible wings level....
Gotta have to love those red pages  ;D


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## Inch (7 May 2006)

pipstah said:
			
		

> zoom => if possible wings level....
> Gotta have to love those red pages  ;D



Ah the common misunderstanding of that line in the red page. It's "Zoom if possible, wings level" which of course has a different meaning than "Zoom, if possible wings level". 

It's telling you to zoom if you can but with the wings level in any case.


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## pipstah (10 May 2006)

thanks for the clarification inch!


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## Sheerin (18 Jun 2007)

found this video of a bird being sucked into the engine of a commercial plane (can't tell what type), complete with a recording of the radio communication between the pilot and ATC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRyTc8d1y5s 

sorry for reviving a dead thread, but I figured it would be better to add it to this one that start a whole new one.


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## Rusty_Poth (17 Sep 2007)

Having worked in the Engine Bay of Cold Lake for a few years and worked in 416 fighter Squardons I have seen my fair share of birdstrikes, the worst jet incident we had was a pilot flew through a flock of birds the aircraft took probably 8-10 strikes, a lot of them were on the leading edge of the wings and one of them made it down the heat exchanger on the left hand side of the aircraft between the intake and the fuselage. I have also seen a complete letdown of an engine when one 18 hit a turkey buzzard at a very high rate of speed!

I have also seen a complete CF-18 aircraft brought back in 2 1/2 t trucks in a million pieces! There really is not much you can do at 700 mph!!!!

I have seen a 13 ft long F404 engine crushed down to around 4 ft after it was removed for a hole in the ground. It was something to behold I tell you.


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## Rusty_Poth (17 Sep 2007)

George Wallace said:
			
		

> It wouldn't clog up the engine, it would cause damage to the engine turbines, which would then disintergrate causing more catastrophic damage and eventually the engine would explode (Timeframe.....milliseconds.).



Actually if the bird did make it that far it would be a miracle, you are partially right, in the case of a bird it would be burnt up in the Combuster section of the engine, that is the area that the fuel/air mixture are burnt to produce the thrust, not much makes it past there due to the high heat.

I will get pictures of a High Pressure Compressor Rotor that we are presently working on at work that ate itself but kept running.

This is a picture of a rotor I rebuilt earlier last year, it is made up of over a thousand very sharp blades installed into disks/spools that are stacked on top of eachother, anything that does make it into this module is pureed quite nicely thank you very much....


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