Delta Airlines Hits UFO ..ok here we go

[alldaysushi]

Seems A Delta 752 while on descent to Chicago struck something interesting.

Nose cone / radome...all safe

On today's early news feed from RT...

My apologies couldn't load the pic, 28 Oct.

[Swedishflyingkiwi]

Delta flight encountered bird (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-5026977/Delta-Flight-carrying-Oklahoma-Thunder-encountered-bird.html).


Seems a basketball team was on board... Took a punch on the nose :ouch:
'What possibly could we have hit?': Rough flight for Steven Adams - NZ Herald (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11937832)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/N4WdDDHoPeCfj_GHwV_nthDNT5c=/900x506/smart/filters:quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/PHLC7AJM4BEEFJSIFLKHOXCJWE.png

[Grumpi]

Well, did they count the birds and one is missing? :hmm:

Certainly does not look like a bird strike, even less a drone strike. Despite the opinion of "Aviation commentator Peter Clark" (in the nzherald story), based on that picture I am willing to bet that this dome collapsed spontaneously.
No traces, no apparent impact point, paint missing only on the places where it is bent, no hail traces, almost exactly symmetric collapse... This happened all by itself, no reason to suspect the feathered colleagues.

Maybe they chose the budget "made from re-used plastic bottles" spare part provider for the plastic caps on their 757s :}

[Bare Plane]

Yeah, where are the blood and guts?

[BluSdUp]

If the aircraft entered cloud or rain the remains of a bird is washed away.

Domes do not collapse " spontaneously" , ever!

Seagulls is my preferred pray, record is 10 in one go. Just after V1.

Moto; Better 10 on the wings then one in the engine!

Remarkably little left to clean up when checking for damage.

My money is on a small bird, five cents worth.

[alldaysushi]

Just typical " expert journalist", article stated somewhere thru FL300 was the strike. High flyers, if that's the case

[Rapid D]

If the aircraft entered cloud or rain the remains of a bird is washed away.

Domes do not collapse " spontaneously" , ever!

Seagulls is my preferred pray, record is 10 in one go. Just after V1.

Moto; Better 10 on the wings then one in the engine!

Remarkably little left to clean up when checking for damage.

My money is on a small bird, five cents worth.

You should google “Boeing 757 nose cone collapse”. You may want to retract the “ever” comment.

[czarnajama]

One of many examples is this old PPRuNe thread:

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/334094-jet-nose-cone-caves-mid-flight.html
(http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/334094-jet-nose-cone-caves-mid-flight.html)

Sounds like an old problem of structural collapse of B757 radomes.

[ironbutt57]

had one on a 767, not struck by anything, defect caused delamination and subsequent collapse..

[ATC Watcher]

If it was bird, if was IFR on GPS as it struck exactly on the middle ! Aerodynamics + initial examination of the damage would indeed suggest a radome collapse,rather than hitting something.

[andrasz]

Shape of collapse practically identical to the cited earlier NW event. Investigation will reveal whether it was simple material failure, or perhaps the delayed effect of an earlier damage (a small bird may not leave any readily recognisable traces, especially in summer when radome also full of insect impacts, during the visual will appear ok, possibly for weeks or months until this happens).

[DJ77]

Possibly detrimental to airspeed indications (both sides affected).

[Trim Stab]

Just typical " expert journalist", article stated somewhere thru FL300 was the strike. High flyers, if that's the case

Highest verified bird-strike was FL370 with a vulture over Africa (Ivory Coast I think). There have been unverified reports of birdstrikes even higher than that.

[misd-agin]

If the aircraft entered cloud or rain the remains of a bird is washed away.

Domes do not collapse " spontaneously" , ever!

Seagulls is my preferred pray, record is 10 in one go. Just after V1.

Moto; Better 10 on the wings then one in the engine!

Remarkably little left to clean up when checking for damage.

My money is on a small bird, five cents worth.


If evidence is washed away after a plane enters a cloud or rain why do big remains stay on airplanes for days, weeks, months, or years? Why does bird strike evidence stay on airplanes stay on for days? I doubt many airliners go days and days without flying through a cloud or rain.

[lomapaseo]

Depends on how you define "remains"

Basically the big pieces wash or are blown off

What remain days later in some cases are goop streaks of dry blood and tissue in dead air zones. ultra-violet light reflects back as yellow-green. After a scrape and a filtration wash of what looks like a finger-nail scraping a puff of down feather may pop out and presto the bird species and maturity is confirmed. Works for other foreign material like, dirt or blue-ice as well.

[The Range]

Or may be they hit a weather balloon.

[underfire]

My vote is with the 'expert' opinions of the passengers...

"Must've been a pretty big bird — a Pterodactyl maybe," Thunder forward Nick Collison said.


NBA team Oklahoma City Thunder stunned after plane damaged by bird strike - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-29/nba-oklahoma-thunder-stunned-by-major-plane-damage/9097020)

Perhaps someone in SEA is still mad about them leaving...

[Loose rivets]

Is there any correlation between the aircraft descent and the collapse on these incidents?

I'm getting a gut feeling that there was a peaking of negative pressure in the nosecone relative to ambient.

[underfire]

Looking at the image, along with the location of the pitot tubes, what kind of airspeed accuracy would you get?

[Loose rivets]

Very good point. I suspect one would see a differential since the cave-in is to one side.

[Fonsini]

Highest verified bird-strike was FL370 with a vulture over Africa (Ivory Coast I think). There have been unverified reports of birdstrikes even higher than that.

Serious question - what exactly are they breathing at 370, do large birdies have an especially low oxygen requirement ?

[Maoraigh1]

I can't think of a reason for a vulture to deliberately go to such an altitude.
Caught up in a CB, and chucked out the top, gliding, disoriented, hypoxic, then an already bad day got worse?

[Bergerie1]

Fonsini,

Birds have a different lung system which is particularly efficient. See here, a slightly irritating commentary, but physiologically correct:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWMmyVu1ueY

[megan]

The Rüppell's vulture of Africa lays claim to being the highest flyer with confirmed evidence of flight at an altitude of 37,100 (mid air with a jet requiring engine shutdown - previous record had been a mid air at 21,000 with a Mallard).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%BCppell%27s_vulture

Bar Headed Geese migrate across the Himalayas at 29,500.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/olympians-of-the-sky

[BobbyHowie]

Out of interest, after impact, how far off was the radome tip from the actual array? Must have pretty close.

[Gauges and Dials]

The radome is forward of the pressure bulkhead, isn't it? In which case, there must be some holes to allow the pressure inside the radome to equalize with the outside air. If the holes became plugged, might that not cause the radome to collapse as the aircraft descended?

[RAT 5]

I don't note any mention of FL or altitude. The a/c was, presumably, IMC. Could t have been an ice ball? The crew will surely know if it was an impact or spontaneous collapse? I suspect the former would have sounded hugely scary, and the latter not so much, if at all.

[LeadSled]

Folks,
I recall a very nasty accident with a (I think) B727 and condor over the Andes, high 20s, low 30s?, it came through the windsceen, and if I am remembering correctly, one of the pilots was killed, leaving the remaining pilot with a explosive decompression over very high ground.
Very nasty situation, but the remaining crew got the aeroplane down OK.