I'm frankly baffled by all this "three seconds" nonsense.
Repeat after me: "twenty and one, twenty and two, twenty and three". That's how long three seconds are.
Then BANGBANGBANG.
All the waffle on the subject supposes that the pilots (with a workload, remember) were looking in the right direction at the right moment. Then they identified those stationary dots as birds... since they were on a collision course, they would have been stationary. Then they could take evasive action? All in three seconds?
Try the other one, it's got bells on.
I would even surmise the BANGBANGBANG came first, followed by a "what the
was.... Did you see that?" when the implications of the dots and the UFOs streaking past hit home, and ripped them away from the job they were doing.
Try again: "twenty and one, twenty and two, twenty and three".
If you disagree, tell me why.
CJ