Bird Strike on an A319

[Aerocadet]

Greetings!

I am presently making a research on an accident here in our country wherein an Airbus 319-111 got hit by bird strike breaking three blades of its engines.

I would just like to ask on where could I get information on the procedures (major replacement or repair) to be done on the aircraft.

Thanks so much! :ok:

[Bus429]

Depends on the damage; not all bird strikes result in serious damage. However, in the case you describe, it is highly likely "broken blades" and broken bird require a shop visit for the engine. Some damage may be fixed on wing; again, depends on type of damage. Other checks have to be done to other parts of the aircraft. I'll try to find excerpts of a maintenance manual for you.

[jpoth06]

From a B737 AMM, bird/hail strike inspection:
(a) Examine the wing, nacelle strut, and the horizontal vertical stabilizer leading edge fairing. Look for displacement, distortion, fastener hole elongation or tearout, and paint that has flaked. Also look for skin cracks, and fasteners that have pulled out or are not there.
(b) Examine the strut panels, doors, and structure for buckling, cracks, and fasteners that have pulled out or are not there.
(c) Examine the wing leading and trailing edge structure, panels, and doors. Look for displacement, distortion, paint that has flaked, cracks, and fasteners that have pulled out or are not there. Also examine the two sides of the honeycomb panels for cracks, delamination, soft spots and core damage.
(d) Examine the leading edge slat mechanism and track fairing links. Look for distortion, cracks, misalignment, or other signs of distress.
(e) Examine the trailing edge flap mechanism and track fairing links. Look for distortion, cracks, misalignment, or other signs of distress.
(f) Examine the control surfaces. Look for binding, too much play, misalignment, distortion, or displacement of skins. Also look for fasteners that have pulled out or are missing.
(g) Examine the nose landing gear doors and linkage. Look for distortion, cracks, and other signs of distress.
(h) Examine the main landing gear doors and linkage. Look for distortion, cracks, and other signs of distress.
(i) Examine the pilots' windows for delamination, spalling, or cracks. Also examine the adjacent structure for distortion, cracks, and fasteners that have pulled out or are not there.
(j) Examine the forward-body nose section "eyebrow" area above the windows and radome. Look for cracks, distortion, delamination, misalignment, and displacement of the skins. Also look for fasteners that have pulled out or are not there.
(k) Examine the internal and external areas of the radome. Look for honeycomb damage and for soft spots.

[LaceySimon]

Damage repair to be carried out IAW SRM(Structure Repair Manual).

[Papa2Charlie]

Did the blades fail (i.e. lose material) or were they deformed by the bird strike? If it was just deformation then it's quite likely the blades were swapped out and the engine continued in service (provided nothing was found during a core enigne borescope inspection).

[Aerocadet]

It was only described in the news article that the three blades were "broken".

Can anyone give an insight on what maintenance procedures are immediately done after this accident or damage done by the bird ingested? (NDT, maintenance checks or servicing, etc.)

For the Airbus 319.

Thanks a lot! :ok:

[MrFixer!!!]

Aerocadet,

I dont think you will be able to get specific info from anywhere else other than people giving information here or laying your hands on the Maintenance Manual.

I am not convinced that a bird can cause 3 Fan blades to bend...unless you are talking about something like a Flemingo or Falcon....it might have been caused by what we say Shingling- Overlapping of the mid-span shroud on the fan blades.

Having seen some really bad Bird Strikes (which I am sure we all have some time or the other).....the general guidelines to follow even before doing anything else are:

1) inspect the engine intake and exhaust (to check the exit point)
2) See whether the debris have gone through the Core of the engine or have been thrown out from the Cold stream itself.
3) Ask the crew if they have any significant change in parameters
4) refer the Maintenance Manual like the one mentioned by jpoth06...which gives you a stepwise procedure of how to go about doing it.
5) if the fan blade are severely damaged then its pretty obvious but most of the time they stay intact but the Bird gets mashed up and goes through the core...in which case we have to do a Boroscope Inspection, initially of main areas (Stage 1 inspection) and if we find some damage in there then we have to do boroscope of the whole engine....

A time consuming task but necessary to make sure the Little Bird has not caused significant damage!!!

Hope its useful !!!