Amazing birdstrike at EDDL/DUS

[B-HKD]

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3578/vogelschlaggefaehrdetbo.jpg

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3578/vogelschlaggefaehrdetbo.jpg

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3578/vogelschlaggefaehrdetbo.jpg

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3578/vogelschlaggefaehrdetbo.jpg

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3578/vogelschlaggefaehrdetbo.jpg

Uneventful landing on one engine after 45 minutes in the air.

Well handled by the crew :D

[mickjoebill]

There is something red in front of the engine in picture number three.

It is probably the remains of the bird that hit the nose...



Mickjoebill

[captplaystation]

Excellent photography :ok:

Scary stuff :eek: shades of RYR at CIA albeit on a ( fortunately) reduced scale.

Shame this was moved to " spectators balcony " Duh, W. T. F . ? ?

[charlie83]

Well Sir......very sorry but I think that is really rather obvious.

On a more serious note, seems well handled.

[BOAC]

On the bright side - there are now a few less.

[A4]

Well done to the crew involved...... but doesn't 45 mins (if true)
seem like a long time to remain airborne on one donk with a
nice long runway underneath you?

Great pictures.

A4

[egsshell]

I like the annotations '1,2,3' on the 2nd picture. Presumably there is not enough room on the 3rd picture! (... 86, 87,88) :)

Obviously well handled but might it not have been better just to land - photo seems to show them at about 50ft. And if they were already going around to avoid birds .... perhaps not a good idea. But what do I know, I wasn't flying the plane.

Any idea on the type of birds? Look like swallows.

[Coffin Corner]

umm, they're bigger than swallows

[Opsbeatch]

African or European...? ;)

[treadigraph]

Look like swallows, swifts or martins to me.

Maybe they were carrying coconuts.

Read an old accident report the other day about a helicopter that suffered a bird strike with a swift which went straight through the windscreen. A second swift right behind made it through the hole alive and began to fly around the cabin. According to the report, the pilot kept control of his steed, calmed his passengers, executed the swift and made a safe, if wind-blown landing.

[Coto]

A Germania Boeing 737-300, registration D-ADII performing flight ST-8656 from Dusseldorf (Germany) to Pristina (Kosovo/Serbia) with 80 passengers, had just become airborne on takeoff from Dusseldorf's runway 05R, when a flock of starlings impacted the right hand side of the aircraft with a number of bird ingested into the right hand engine (CFM56) approximately overhead the touch down zone/aiming markers of the opposite runway 23L. The crew decided to return to Dusseldorf, where the airplane landed safely about 45 minutes after takeoff.

The runway was closed for about 30 minutes to remove the dead birds from the runway.

[egsshell]

A Germania Boeing 737-300, registration D-ADII performing flight ST-8656 from Dusseldorf (Germany) to Pristina (Kosovo/Serbia) with 80 passengers, had just become airborne

Thanks for the info, Coto. I somehow assumed they were landing, not taking off! Most of the ones I have hit have been on landing or on approach. Ok, there was the one on take-off at CDG. And a wise old bar-stool pilot once told me "Birds don't fly in clouds, and you will never hit one at night". So I hit one at night, in cloud (a duck, judging from the head we removed from under the windscreen wiper).

Amazed there is any wildlife left really :sad:

[Skyfan]

Stunning shots and an uneventful result (unless your paying for the repairs) :ok:

[Canuckbirdstrike]

The question that needs to be asked is: "What kind of airfield wildlife management program is in place at DUS"? A well structured program should have prevented this type of event.

As pilots we need to remember that strikes with flocking birds represent the greates hazard. Yes, large waterfowl represent the highest risk, but small birds can be just as hazardous. The worst aviation accident from a bird strike was caused by a flock of starlings.

Sadly many segments of our industry feel that bird strikes are "natural" events that cannot be prevented, which is not true. Additionally, there is a desire for "silver bullet" solutions to managing wildlife and there aren't any. Managing wildlife to reduce strike risks is like guerilla warfare - you need to know your enemy and be aware that his tactics will evolve constantly. A good wildlife control program requires an integrated approach to manage habitat and use active control.

Recent events are confirming that bird strikes are a significant risk to flight safety, that is occurring with increasing regularity, that needs better management. We have had two hull losses, fortunately with no loss of life. The next major bird strike hull loss event, which will occur in the near future, may not result in such successful outcomes. As an industry we cannot afford to have this type of preventable event. When one of these events does occur the resulting investigations will show that prevention is possible and there will be significant liability costs assessed against the parties who should have acted to prevent the event.

There are lots of great resources out there to help all parts of our industry manage bird strike risks. Take the time to learn more!

[Avman]

egsshell, stop pretending to be a pilot you idiot. Not being able to tell the difference between an aeroplane landing or taking off, plus your drivel about landing instead of going around, gives you away.

[Nicholas49]

Seconded.

But what do I know, I wasn't flying the plane.

No, you weren't.

[the dean]

old instructor used to say..'' we don't have a horn to blow...so lights is the next best thing''....

could be wrong but i do'nt see any...certainly on the nose strut....:confused:

[Navigator33]

Obviously well handled but might it not have been better just to land - photo seems to show them at about 50ft. And if they were already going around to avoid birds .... perhaps not a good idea. But what do I know, I wasn't flying the plane.

You are joking right? Unless you're flying SEP this is the stupidest remark I've ever seen :ugh:

[G SXTY]

Bird warnings are a regular feature on the DUS ATIS - including yesterday, funnily enough . . .

Canuckbirdstrike
I reported a similar sized flock lurking around taxiway M last week, and they held departures until the birds were moved on. From my limited experience, I'd say that Dusseldorf is just as bird-aware as any other airport. At least there's a few less to worry about now.

[Canuckbirdstrike]

G SXTY, thanks for the informative post on your observations at EDDL. Actions like yours to report birds and have them dispersed is an essential risk managment tool that in many cases is not well understood by pilots.

The issue is to understand that "dispersal" is a tactical short term solution to a bird problem. The crtical element is understanding what birds are in the area, what are the high risk species and was is attracting them to the airport - and remove it!. Habitat management is the key to effective bird control and many airports have difficulty grasping this and how to make it work. Habitat modification can look expensive in the short term, but pays off in the longer term through reduced tactical costs and improved effectiveness.

As pilots we tend to focus on scaring on dispersal techniques to address our instant needs. The real solution required is a long term one.

For further information on the bird strike issue may I suggest visiting the Transport Canada website and viewing the on-line version of "Sharing the Skies". this is a great compendium of information on this safety problem with information for all the aviation community.

[Ultralights]

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2009/09/30/1225781/047729-dtstory-200-birds.jpg

just found this in the local paper,
any news on the damage done to the engine? or is the ingestion of 200 starlings well within the engines tolerance for such damage?

[raffele]

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.pprune.org/spectators-balcony-spotters-corner/390485-amazing-birdstrike-eddl-dus.html

[Duck Rogers]

C'mon folks. Use your imagination and search before posting, eh? This is the fifth time.


Duck

[Clandestino]

Cannuckbirdstrike.... you actually want to... control starlings?!?!?!?

Praiseworthy as the objective is, I'm afraid that serious pursuit of it would only land you an IgNobel. Have a look here (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=starlings+flocking&search_type=&aq=0&oq=starlings+) to see what starling flock looks like. These birdies can keep 25 kt cruising speed for hours, like short grass and are not easily intimidated. The only current realistic solution is to stop flying whenever flock of them is detected near the airport.

[JTG]

Have you ever heard the story of about the time a Britsh train mfg asked to use the device Boeing uses to test windscreens? Boeing sent the catapult to Britian and after it had been there a couple months and was set up they get a call here in the Seattle Testing Facility. "What can we do to increase the strength of our windscreen design on our new locomotive? We put a med size turkey in it. Fire at the screen and the bird doesn't stop untill it is lodged in the electrical pannel behind the engineers seat! :eek: Not good mate" After some give and take with the engineers in England, the Boeing engineer says. "Thaw the bird first":oh:

[Canuckbirdstrike]

Clandestino, with all due respect I am intimately familiar with Starlings, their flocking behaviour and the hazard they present to aircraft. I am also very familiar with habitat management techniques that are very effective at addressing flocks of starlings.

Understanding what is attracting the Starlings and removing that attractant is a very effective long term solution. It is done regularly at airports. Unfortunatley, many people fail to understand how effective habitat management is to control bird hazards.

I so completely agree that if a flock of strlings is detected that presents a hazard to aircraft departures and arrivals due the failure of habitat management that operations need to be modified until the hazard is removed.

[ChristiaanJ]

I am intimately familiar with starlings, their flocking behaviour and the hazard they present to aircraft. I am also very familiar with habitat management techniques that are very effective at addressing flocks of starlings.]
You are clearly very familiar with the problem.
Just out of (local) interest, could you expound a bit?
Observing them here, just before they start migrating, would make me say those large flocks move around pretty randomly, searching for another food source.
What kind of habitat management techniques are effective in addressing that?

CJ

[mary meagher]

Amazing birdstrike sequence of photos posted by a 17 year old in "Spotter's Corner" may be overlooked by all you grizzly professional pilots....

However if I were in your seats, I would be very interested in preventing a mess like that all over my shiny airbus, by insisting that airfield management adopted some of the suggestions made later on his thread. Can we put it somewhere more conspicuous than "spotter's corner", mods?

[Bullethead]

Well I'll be flocked! :}

[Noah Zark.]

The German paper carrying these pictures reckons the objects labelled "2" in that second photo are individual birds passing by the cockpit.

Look more like pitot tubes to me.

Prolly the German equivalent of the "Currant Bun"!

[NutLoose]

Glad to see there was a happy outcome from this. :ok:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/09/30/article-1217035-06A0DEB1000005DC-337_964x631.jpg

From and more details

Bird strike! The moment 200 starlings were sucked into passenger jet engine on take-off | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1217035/Bird-strike-The-moment-200-starlings-sucked-passenger-jet-engine-off.html?ITO=1490&referrer=yahoo)

[Coffin Corner]

for the 25th time

Not Again :ugh:

:E

[HXdave]

and at the time of writing this post, the latest thread containg exactly the same picture (together with a load more pictures too) is only 4 lines down!

:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh: :ugh::ugh::ugh:

[ukdean]

WOW,

Germania must be very unlucky this is the 3rd time this week this has happened. You would have thought the birds would have learned by now.

:mad::ugh::ugh::ugh:

:ugh::{:=:=

Come on nutlose, keep up:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Smilin_Ed]

"Birds don't fly in clouds, and you will never hit one at night"

I hit what was probably a goose at about 1800 feet over Whidbey Island, Washington. It glanced off the top of the canopy. No damage. We were lucky. The bird probably wasn't.:{

[Ranger 1]

I will apologise in advance for going off thread but, I would like to raise the fact that Birds certainly do fly at night, Lapwings are a classic example of a species that do.

Numerous very serious strikes have occured at night one that comes to mind was in France involing a Falcon 20 in 1995 which resulted in 10 fatalities.

Birds can turn up on an airfield at night or its approaches without warning for many reasons such as bad weather for example Fog / high winds which prevents them reaching their normal roosting site, causing them to roost on the airfield or surrounding areas, only to be disturbed and placed in the path of aircraft.

Here in the UK the annual migration of birds is well under way and there will be an increase in strikes especially at night due to the mass movement of various species.

Tea break over... back out on Patrol :ok:

[Robert Campbell]

"Birds don't fly in clouds, and you will never hit one at night"

I hit a Mallard Duck at 12,000 ft. in IMC during the winter close the midnight over Blyth, CA in a DC-3 in 1978.

The impact knocked our small rechargeable flashlights off the gutter beneath the windshield. When we landed at LAX we found duck feet and Mallard colored stuck feathers in the right windshield wiper.

Since it was on his side, I made the FO clean up the mess. The hit sure scared the **** out of us.

[ChristiaanJ]

I thougt the subject of birds "in IMC" has already been treated repeatedly here on PPRuNe.

The answer being simply, that birds don' fly under 100% IMC either, but that at 30 to 50 kts they have far more ways to remain between cloud layers and are far better equipped to aviate and navigate under those conditions, even at night, than we are, barging along at 300+ kts, and usually not 'looking' where we're going, unlike them...

CJ

[BOAC]

Are you serious?

[contractor25]

DUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ChristiaanJ]

DUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
You don't know how close you are to the truth....

Many many years ago, in a DC-3 flying as a shuttle for BAC between Fairford and Filton, the F/O for some reason ducked below the coaming to check something.
The next instant ... a gull smashed through the windshield, and went "splat" into the bulkhead behind him, showering him with glass and blood.

Nowadays, I don't think starlings would actally get though a windshield. But "duck" might still be a useful reflex...

CJ