Highest ALT for bird strike?
 

One possible cause that has been discussed recently involves a bird strike involving a passenger aircraft that recently lost both engines and crashed on approach.

What is the highest ALT that a bird strike could take out both engines in a passenger jet? I think the Sully incident in NYC was on takeoff at around 1 or 2 thousand feet; right?

Thx...

A bit of googling finds How Fast and High Do Birds Fly? which suggests that migratory birds can typically be found around 5000 - 20000 feet, though I guess it likely depends on the concentrations of birds as to the chances of taking out both engines simultaneously?

Google and Wikipedia, wonderful tools:

Bird strikes happen most often during takeoff or landing, or during low altitude flight.[7] However, bird strikes have also been reported at high altitudes, some as high as 6,000 m (20,000 ft) to 9,000 m (30,000 ft) above the ground. Bar-headed geese have been seen flying as high as 10,175 m (33,383 ft) above sea level. An aircraft over the Côte d'Ivoire collided with a Rüppell's Vulture at the astonishing altitude of 11,300 m (37,100 ft), the current record avian height.[8] The majority of bird collisions occur near or on airports (90%, according to the ICAO) during takeoff, landing and associated phases. According to the FAA wildlife hazard management manual for 2005, less than 8% of strikes occur above 900 m (3,000 ft) and 61% occur at less than 30 m (100 ft).[citation needed]

J

Evenin'

When I was doing my initial ATCO training, I learnt that the highest recorded bird strike was a vulture at 32,000 feet! (From memory. It was more than Fl300 anyway!) At the time I was mighty suspicious of this: How could it survive up there? How did it get up there? If this is the case then I'm impressed but surely there must be some mistake in the figures here??

Edit: Quick Wiki search gave the answer here Bird strike - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Ruppells Vulture at 37,100ft!!!!!

L

I had one at over 12,000 ft, at night...

Wtf was it doing, flying at night, at that alt?

Just like Cough, I had one at night overhead Belgrade at about 12,000 feet.

Climb checks just completed and THUD.......right above my LHS window in an A320.

Couldn't tell what kind of bird. It did however, contain a lot of blood.

Geese don't land for the night. Various flocking large birds have been observed at heights you wouldn't believe. Condors have a head start being born up a mountain.

You can get close to an ID using DNA testing but not if it's contaminated by human contact. You can tell if it has as the result comes back ape/monkey:ugh:

SGC

The bird was just exercising its birthrights!

Wtf were you doing, flying at night, at that alt?

You are seven times more likely to have a bird strike at night than during the day. Many migratory species wait until nightfall and then ride the winds at altitude to get a higher groundspeed.

Take a look at some of the migratory bird paths and altitudes available in publications like "Sharing the Skies" and the information is very interesting.

Also the higher altitudes strikes usually involve larger birds and in flocks.

To answer the OP, for 'both engines', nothing like the altitudes mentioned above. I would hazard a guess at 3-4000' for a big enough 'formation'.

Cough - the obvious answer is "about 15mph".:rolleyes:

Well, that was a little slower than us then...:\

If we were where we should have been, which was about 9000 ft lower (no. 2 to a Seneca.. Don't ask....), the world would be a bird richer today... Ho hum

Only crowning glory on this one was how central we got it. I mean, perfect bulls eye, with fluid going all the way round the radome... Do you think I get to meet Jim Bowen for that one?

An EK 777 had a interesting bird strike out of DXB last year outbound to the far east. Hit a flock of birds at just under 11000', lost pressurisation, lots of instruments, AP, athr. Aircraft had just accelerated to 300+ knots. Crew dumped fuel, and did a text book job getting it back into DXB. Flight was an upgrade flight. Photos showed a hole just forward of the #1 flightdeck window, and impact damage on the horiz stab, plus other impacts on the fuselage.
I don't know what the birds were, but the UAE is a major migratory area for birds. The birds were thought to be just above an inversion layer.

SyB :zzz:

On the Q400 you have to reduce to birdstrike protection speed beliw 14,000 feet. So I guess that Bombardier reckons 14,000 ft.

I have personnaly come across migrating geese at 260, very large formation of maybe 40 birds.

Gulp! I stand corrected!

No hypoxia for birds...

I would add a big "If" to this

The probability is also tied to the probability of an aircraft occupying the exact same airspace at the time.

The majority of the multiple engine bird strikes occur during the day at very low altitudes in line with runway headings,

Folks,
Highest multiple bird strike I have had was about FL150, at night, coming into Bangkok, the birds were never identified, but it took some washing to clean up the nose of the aircraft, a B744.
Tootle pip!!

My personal one... 17,000.

Hell of a bang!

OK, what's the highest 'fish strike' altitude? :O