Birds cause emergency landings, aborted takeoffs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8336596

Birds cause emergency landings, aborted takeoffs

* AP foreign, Saturday January 31 2009

By JOAN LOWY

Associated Press Writer= WASHINGTON (AP) — Commercial airline crews
reported more than two dozen emergency landings, aborted takeoffs or
other hair-raising incidents due to collisions with birds in the past
two years, according to a confidential database managed by NASA.

An Associated Press review of reports filed voluntarily with NASA's
Aviation Safety Reporting System show that bird-airliner encounters
happen frequently, though none as dramatic as the one involving a US
Airways jet that ditched safely into the Hudson River on Jan. 15
because a run-in with birds took out both of its engines.

Since January 2007, at least 26 serious birdstrikes were reported. In
some of them, the aircraft's brakes caught fire or cabins and cockpits
filled with smoke and the stench of burning birds. Engines failed and
fan blades broke. In one case, a birdstrike left a 12-inch hole in the
wing of a Boeing 757-200.

The NASA data does not include details such as the names of crews,
airlines, and, in many cases, the airports involved —
confidentiality designed to encourage greater reporting.

"That's only touching the tip of the iceberg," said former National
Transportation Safety Board member John Goglia. "Clearly, we don't
have knowledge of the full width and breadth of this problem."

From 1990 to 2007, there were nearly 80,000 reported incidents of
birds striking nonmilitary aircraft, about one strike for every 10,000
flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the
Agriculture Department. Those numbers are based on voluntary reports,
which aviation safety experts say almost certainly underestimate the
size of the problem and fail to convey the severity of some incidents.

In some cases reported to the NASA database, crews said they could
smell birds burning in the engines — "a toxic smell like burning
toast (or) popcorn" wrote a flight attendant on an MD-80 airliner that
had just taken off last March. After returning to the airport for an
emergency landing, it was discovered the aircraft had suffered a
birdstrike on a previous landing.

Among other cases detailed in the NASA database:

—In March 2007, the pilot of a Boeing 777-200, a wide-bodied
airliner that typically seats more than 280 passengers, reported a
birdstrike in the right engine shortly after a takeoff, causing strong
engine vibrations. The pilot shut down the engine and asked to divert
to another airport for an emergency landing, dumping as much of the
plane's 160,000 pounds of fuel as possible to reduce the plane's
landing weight. An overweight plane risks blowing a tire, going off
the runway or breaking apart on landing.

—In June 2007, a Boeing 757-200 at Denver International Airport was
forced to abort a takeoff at between 150 mph and 160 mph after a flock
of birds the size of grapefruit flew into the path of the plane. Some
birds were sucked into both engines, the pilot reported.

—In July 2008, the pilot of a Boeing 737-300 in the midst of a 139-
mph takeoff roll spotted a hawk with a 4-foot wing span on the runway.
As the bird flew past the left side of the plane, the crew heard a
"very loud bang" and there was engine surge. The pilot aborted the
takeoff at great strain to the aircraft's brakes, which caught fire.
Fire trucks doused the flames. No one was hurt.

—In May 2008, the pilot of a regional airliner reported that he
found the windshield of the plane he was to fly "covered in blood,
guts and feathers from an obvious birdstrike." When he complained to
the airline's maintenance department, he said, he was told the
previous flight crew was responsible for reporting the incident or
cleaning up the mess themselves.

More common than aborted takeoffs are reports of planes that had to
circle back to their departure airports or divert to other fields for
emergency landings because a bird had damaged an engine shortly after
takeoff.

Former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said the safety board has been warning
for decades that birds "are a significant safety problem." The board
sent a series of bird-related safety recommendations to the FAA in
1999, including required reporting of birdstrikes by airlines and the
development of a radar system that can detect birds near airports.

A decade later, reporting is still voluntary. FAA spokeswoman Laura
Brown said developing a reliable bird-detecting radar has proved
difficult. Some of the systems tested by the agency picked up insects
as well as birds.

"We've been working on this," Brown said, "and haven't developed a
system yet we feel we can make operational in a commercial aviation
environment that's going to give us the kind of solid, reliable data
we're looking for."

---

On the Net:

NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System: http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/

It's not just aircraft either; windscreens of trains or cars can be
obliterated by bird strike.

I once braked sharply to avoid a pheasant, for my troubles, this
earned me a rant and much blowing of horn from the rather inattentive
driver behind that had only just stopped in time.

I guess he hadn’t been best pleased when he realised a pheasant was
responsible for him nearly crapping himself.

But I didn’t care, because just the day before I’d witnessed an
overtaking (60-70mph) car take a pheasant out with its windscreen and
it went through like a frozen turkey, leaving a not very nice mess on
the leather seats and a somewhat distressed lady driver giving thanks
that her head was still in one piece.

What if Al Qaeda starts to train USA birds to deliberatly aim for
aircraft engines in suicide missions ?

Homeland security will demand that borders be setup in the sky to
control bird migration and ensure that birds migrating into the USA have
not had any contact with Al Qaeda.

This will solve the economic crisis because during the fall, they'll
have to hire millions of americans to man those sky borders to screen
the millions of birds that fly from canada to the USA for winter.

The'll also have to tag all birds with US governmnet mandated RFID chips
which will act as the bird's passport.

Finally, birds will have to go to the homeland security web site 72
hours before a flight to the USA in order to register themselves.

:-)

"Lord Truscott of Brownenvelope" a écrit dans le
message de
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8336596

Birds cause emergency landings, aborted takeoffs

* AP foreign, Saturday January 31 2009

By JOAN LOWY

Associated Press Writer= WASHINGTON (AP) â?" Commercial airline crews
reported more than two dozen emergency landings, aborted takeoffs or
other hair-raising incidents due to collisions with birds in the past
two years, according to a confidential database managed by NASA.

An Associated Press review of reports filed voluntarily with NASA's
Aviation Safety Reporting System show that bird-airliner encounters
happen frequently, though none as dramatic as the one involving a US
Airways jet that ditched safely into the Hudson River on Jan. 15
because a run-in with birds took out both of its engines.

Since January 2007, at least 26 serious birdstrikes were reported. In
some of them, the aircraft's brakes caught fire or cabins and cockpits
filled with smoke and the stench of burning birds. Engines failed and
fan blades broke. In one case, a birdstrike left a 12-inch hole in the
wing of a Boeing 757-200.

The NASA data does not include details such as the names of crews,
airlines, and, in many cases, the airports involved â?"
confidentiality designed to encourage greater reporting.

"That's only touching the tip of the iceberg," said former National
Transportation Safety Board member John Goglia. "Clearly, we don't
have knowledge of the full width and breadth of this problem."

From 1990 to 2007, there were nearly 80,000 reported incidents of
birds striking nonmilitary aircraft, about one strike for every 10,000
flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the
Agriculture Department. Those numbers are based on voluntary reports,
which aviation safety experts say almost certainly underestimate the
size of the problem and fail to convey the severity of some incidents.

In some cases reported to the NASA database, crews said they could
smell birds burning in the engines â?" "a toxic smell like burning
toast (or) popcorn" wrote a flight attendant on an MD-80 airliner that
had just taken off last March. After returning to the airport for an
emergency landing, it was discovered the aircraft had suffered a
birdstrike on a previous landing.

Among other cases detailed in the NASA database:

â?"In March 2007, the pilot of a Boeing 777-200, a wide-bodied
airliner that typically seats more than 280 passengers, reported a
birdstrike in the right engine shortly after a takeoff, causing strong
engine vibrations. The pilot shut down the engine and asked to divert
to another airport for an emergency landing, dumping as much of the
plane's 160,000 pounds of fuel as possible to reduce the plane's
landing weight. An overweight plane risks blowing a tire, going off
the runway or breaking apart on landing.

â?"In June 2007, a Boeing 757-200 at Denver International Airport was
forced to abort a takeoff at between 150 mph and 160 mph after a flock
of birds the size of grapefruit flew into the path of the plane. Some
birds were sucked into both engines, the pilot reported.

â?"In July 2008, the pilot of a Boeing 737-300 in the midst of a 139-
mph takeoff roll spotted a hawk with a 4-foot wing span on the runway.
As the bird flew past the left side of the plane, the crew heard a
"very loud bang" and there was engine surge. The pilot aborted the
takeoff at great strain to the aircraft's brakes, which caught fire.
Fire trucks doused the flames. No one was hurt.

â?"In May 2008, the pilot of a regional airliner reported that he
found the windshield of the plane he was to fly "covered in blood,
guts and feathers from an obvious birdstrike." When he complained to
the airline's maintenance department, he said, he was told the
previous flight crew was responsible for reporting the incident or
cleaning up the mess themselves.

More common than aborted takeoffs are reports of planes that had to
circle back to their departure airports or divert to other fields for
emergency landings because a bird had damaged an engine shortly after
takeoff.

Former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said the safety board has been warning
for decades that birds "are a significant safety problem." The board
sent a series of bird-related safety recommendations to the FAA in
1999, including required reporting of birdstrikes by airlines and the
development of a radar system that can detect birds near airports.

A decade later, reporting is still voluntary. FAA spokeswoman Laura
Brown said developing a reliable bird-detecting radar has proved
difficult. Some of the systems tested by the agency picked up insects
as well as birds.

"We've been working on this," Brown said, "and haven't developed a
system yet we feel we can make operational in a commercial aviation
environment that's going to give us the kind of solid, reliable data
we're looking for."

---

On the Net:

NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System: http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/

"Lord Truscott of Brownenvelope" wrote in message
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8336596

Birds cause emergency landings, aborted takeoffs


No **** sherlock

Keith

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:37:46 +0000, wrote
(in article
):

I guess he hadn’t

Can't you get your apostrophes sorted out? :-)

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire

In article ,
Keith Willshaw wrote:

"Lord Truscott of Brownenvelope" wrote in message
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8336596

Birds cause emergency landings, aborted takeoffs


No **** sherlock

Well, it's one bit of evidence to suggest that Boris the Idiot's idea
of an airport in the Thames Estuary is a really, /really/ stupid one.
As we've seen in the last couple of weeks, ingestion of large members of
the order anatidae are not compatible with optimal working of jet
engines...


--
Andy Breen, not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales
"The internet, that wonderful tool for bringing us into contact
with things that make us wish we could scrub our brains out with
dental floss.." (Charlie Stross)

"Andrew Robert Breen" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Keith Willshaw wrote:

"Lord Truscott of Brownenvelope" wrote in
message
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8336596

Birds cause emergency landings, aborted takeoffs


No **** sherlock

Well, it's one bit of evidence to suggest that Boris the Idiot's idea
of an airport in the Thames Estuary is a really, /really/ stupid one.
As we've seen in the last couple of weeks, ingestion of large members of
the order anatidae are not compatible with optimal working of jet
engines...



Yet its an idea that keeps recurring, I recall Harold Wislon's lot proposing
something similar in the 60's

Keith

This was posted:
I guess he hadn^Rt

Mike Lane responds:
Can't you get your apostrophes sorted out? :-)

I've shown that apostrophe the way it appeared for me, but that's
because I'm using an old-fashioned environment that won't switch
character sets, i.e. it's my own fault that I don't see it correctly.
Same for Mike. The posting was correctly tagged as using Windows 1252,
in which that thing after "hadn" is indeed an apostrophe.

This is off-topic for all three newsgroups, so let's not go into it
any further here, okay?
--
Mark Brader | "If the standard says that [things] depend on the
Toronto | phase of the moon, the programmer should be prepared
| to look out the window as necessary." -- Chris Torek

My text in this article is in the public domain.

In message
"Keith Willshaw" wrote:


"Andrew Robert Breen" wrote in message
...
In article , Keith Willshaw
wrote:

"Lord Truscott of Brownenvelope" wrote in
message
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8336596

Birds cause emergency landings, aborted takeoffs


No **** sherlock

Well, it's one bit of evidence to suggest that Boris the Idiot's idea of
an airport in the Thames Estuary is a really, /really/ stupid one. As
we've seen in the last couple of weeks, ingestion of large members of the
order anatidae are not compatible with optimal working of jet engines...



Yet its an idea that keeps recurring, I recall Harold Wislon's lot
proposing something similar in the 60's


Maplin Sands wasn't it, IIRC the electronics shops were named after it.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html