>I wonder if there's any research to suggest that a jet engine can eat a bird, at any altitude, and not get indigestion straight away? I'd have thought that either the engine would get sick straight away, or not at all. A local RR-Spey engine operator here gets more than their fair share of bird ingestions and it always seems to "fowl" the engine pretty much straight away.
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They get sick right away, however in some cases the symptoms become more pronounced (and reported by the pilot) much later. Symptoms like surge or vibration