Mysterious Incident at LPFR-Faro..!

[JanetFlight]

Hi There:)
Since last Thursday, 10th, there is a MD83 laying at Faro apron victim of a somehow strange occurence...The plane is a MapJets/Aviajets "MadDog"; OE-IKB, and some engineers are at Faro working on it, and also trying to find what really happened...The plane, according to pilots and engineers staff, when cruising at FL330 btw DUB and FAO, suffered an impact wich caused 2 holes in the right wing, 2 big scratches on the right side fuselage too, and is also waiting until next week for some engine pieces coming from the States.
According some reports, at the impact time, the weather was SKC, and fortunately no injuries at all...only an MD AOG.
Both crew and maintenance staff seems to be very intriguing and curious on what really happened, and what really caused the misterious impact at such altitude..:confused:
Cheers from the Land of the Sun:ok:

[ChristiaanJ]

Ah, a magnificient occasion for speculation.....
FL330 and SKC.

Frozen "waste" from an aircraft at FL400+ ?
Re-entry of space debris?
A meteor?

All equally improbable, but after eliminating the impossible (there are no vultures at FL330 between DUB and FAO) it might be worth looking at the improbable.

I truly hope we'll get the story.

[lomapaseo]

From the LE damage, it is most probably ice. Consider sources as potable water, blue ice and in the rarest of cirumstances radome ice.
The report itself may need to be examined for total flight conditions and possible confusion between port and starboard damage.

[arcniz]

Don't forget the growing population of tiny unmanned drones doing surveillance or just commuting - across continents and oceans - in a clandestine off-the-books manner.

Improbable, I know... but just a matter of time

[Fly380]

How about a meteorological balloon? Had a near miss with one back in 1986 over Manchester at FL290 and filed an Airmiss report. The origin of the balloon was traced. Lots of dangly bits on it. :eek:

[brakedwell]

Be careful gentlemen, or the Sun will soon be printing reports of little green men bobbing around in a little orange dinghy!

[FlexibleResponse]

Any photos of the damage?

[JanetFlight]

Only this one for now and also after some removed panels »»»
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d25/Burany/LinhadaFrente/IMG_2856-Val.jpg
There are some other damages on the respective Leading Edge, not seen here, and also at the Right Engine intake.
Notice the "kind" of white speed-tape posted there on diagonal..!
Cheers:)

[mojocvh]

Geese (really)

[ChristiaanJ]

mojocvh,
When I mentioned vultures earlier, I was not joking..... there are recorded birdstrike incidents with vultures at over 25,000 ft in India.

But geese? That high, that far north?

Also, if it was a "mysterious impact", it's unlikely it was a bird strike.... they're perfectly obvious... and usually stink to high heaven, literally.

[llondel]

Highest recorded birdstrike was a Ruppell's griffon, a vulture with a wingspan of about 10 feet, around 38000ft. It took a quick look at the inside of an engine...

Bar-headed geese reach 30000ft flying over the Himalayas, and whooper swans have been observed at 27000ft over the Atlantic. A mallard duck bumped into an aircaft at 21000ft over North America about forty years ago.

That's the notable high flyers of the avian world, although as mentioned, none of which were particularly close to the DUB-FAO flight path.

[Airbubba]

Here's an earlier midair mystery with a FedEx feeder plane:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=127404

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/05/21/mystery.plane/index.html

http://www.cunninghambounds.com/news.php?cat=&detail=1&from=22

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20021029X05400&ntsbno=ATL03FA008&akey=1

[doubleu-anker]

I know a guy who bought an A/C back to base all banged up.

On answering his chief pilot as to what the hell had happened and being informed it was a bird strike, the CP wanted to know if the bird was in tree at the time...:}

[j_davey]

that explains all the hire-ins they`ve had lately.

[Fly380]

Ever get the impression no one reads your posts. Now what have we got just posted. WEATHER BALLOON COLLISION.:ugh::ugh::ugh:

[j_davey]

well its fixed, i had a look at it last night.

that "speed tape" is actually white tape covering a stripe that was on the aircraft when in was in mapjet colours. see pic:

http://www.airfleets.net/show/?pic=62413

jd.