Was flying back on a casevac late one night through Victoria Harbour, HK, in an S-76.
I got a sudden impression of all the lights of the Island going out, followed by the sight of something black just in front of my windscreen. There was an immediate huge BANG just above my head.
We had hit a very large bird, migrating by moonlight. Fortunately there was no damage and we continued to base, about three minutes flying away. There was a lot of blood, guts and feathers up on the cockpit roof but none of it went down the engines or into the flying controls.
About 20 years ago I lost a good friend, Steve Belcher, copilot on a Nimrod. They lost 3 out of 4 engines on departure from a Scottish RAF base, fully laden. After the accident about 70 dead seagulls were found on the airfield. The aircraft went down in trees off the end of the runway. Both pilots were killed but all the rear crew escaped.
