Double Bird Strike: Did it crash US Airways Flight 1549?

by Amy Judd | January 15, 2009 at 01:59 pm

3741 views | 28 Recommendations | 8 comments

A double bird strike by Canadian Geese brought down US Airways Flight 1549, flying from New York to North Carolina in the Hudson River today.

What is a bird strike?

How can that happen? How can a bird or a group of birds bring down an entire airline? And how often does this happen?

It happens more often than we may think it does.

In the case of US Airways Flight 1549, it was a double bird strike - meaning two birds were sucked into the plane's engines at the same time. A flock of Canada Geese hit both engines at about 3,000 feet after takeoff and both engines were lost. Canada Geese are native to North America and are distinguishable by their black plumage and the white band around their neck.

A bird strike, or birdstrike or bird hit, is when a collision occurs in the air between an airplane and a flying animal.

Most bird strikes happen during take-off or landing, but they have been known to happen at thousands of feet in the air. It is especially dangerous when a bird or group of birds is pulled into the engine of the plane; this often causes the aircraft to go down. Pilots cannot often avoid birds in the air, except when they are taking off and they see a group of them on the ground below them, but once the plane is in the air, the aircraft is just too big to manouver around one small bird or a few birds.

It can be extremely dangerous as if a bird is sucked into a jet engine and that blade is displaced, then that can cause a cascading failure, meaning that the plane will have to make a crash landing.

According to the Bird Strike Committee, bird strikes cause about $600 million worth of damages to the aviation industry every year.

Usually birds flying into planes doesn't even register as turbulence, but around 200 people have been killed since 1988 due to collisions in the air with birds. The size of the bird doesn't matter because even small birds can get stuck in the engines and bring down the plane.

There have been a number of bird strikes since recording began in about 1905.

Just late last year, a Ryanair jet was forced to make an emergency landing in Rome when birds were sucked into the engines.

Wikipedia has some examples:

The first reported bird strike was by Orville Wright in 1905, and according to their diaries Orville … flew 4,751 meters in 4 minutes 45 seconds, four complete circles. Twice passed over fence into Beard's cornfield. Chased flock of birds for two rounds and killed one which fell on top of the upper surface and after a time fell off when swinging a sharp curve.

The first recorded bird strike fatality was reported in 1912 when aero-pioneer Cal Rodgers collided with a gull which became jammed in his aircraft controls. He crashed at Long Beach, California, was pinned under the wreckage and drowned.

The greatest loss of life directly linked to a bird strike was on October 4, 1960, when Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, a Lockheed L-188 Electra flying from Boston, flew through a flock of common starlings during take off, damaging all four engines. The plane crashed shortly after take-off into Boston harbor, with 62 fatalities. Subsequently, minimum bird ingestion standards for jet engines were developed by the FAA.

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Uwe Paschen

at 18:40 on January 15th, 2009

Why air ports have Bird scare gadgets or some times dogs as well. and not trees for hundreds of meters or bushes.

George W Bush (not verified)

at 21:24 on January 15th, 2009

As I have said in the past I say again, this was no accident. These geese were trained by Al Queda don't ya know!

Amy Judd

at 21:28 on January 15th, 2009

Well then that definitely explains it.. thanks 'George Bush'....

G Patton (not verified)

at 06:14 on January 16th, 2009

Bird strikes are not rare, but are usually of the "sparrow" size and not a Canada Goose. A bird that size can shut an engine down and going through a flock can definitely shut both down. I would be willing to bet that when the CVR is played, the crew will comment about the birds and you'll probably hear an, "Oh, s**t." By the time you see the flock, it is usually too late and maneuvering out of the way is impossible. They knew what the problem was after it happened and moved onto their next challenge, landing safely. Ditching, rather than stretching a glide, was brilliant.

CarmenVV

at 15:48 on January 16th, 2009

CarmenVV has contributed a photo to this story.

A. Tran

at 22:22 on January 16th, 2009

Good piece Amy.

the incident appeared to be caused not by a terrorist attack or mechanical failure but by a wayward flock of geese.

Apparently, the geese were sucked into the two jet engines, which caused the simultaneous engine failures. The authorities believed each goose must have weighed somewhere 10 lbs.

The report, which was released in June by the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation and Fish and Wildlife Service, found that since 1990, the number of bird strikes has quadrupled, from 1,759 in 1990 to a record 7,666 in 2007. Officials cite a number of possible causes for the increase:

Albert Milliron

at 22:07 on January 16th, 2009

great work Amy

stacia (not verified)

at 11:19 on January 20th, 2009

those poor animals

lets stop talking like the birds killed the people. were invading their territory. If we want to take advantage of the air as a mode of transportation, we can't blame other animals when something goes wrong. lets remember, our planes killed them.