We Believe We Saw Their Right Engine Fall Off

[Briar Lee]

A FedEx cargo plane made an emergency landing at a busy New Jersey airport on Saturday after a bird strike caused an engine fire that could be seen in the morning sky.

The plane landed at Newark Liberty International Airport during the emergency, said Lenis Valens, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. There were no reported injuries, and fire on the cargo plane was contained to the engine, Valens said.

Audio recorded by LiveATC captured a person calmly saying the aircraft needed to “shut down for a possible bird strike” immediately. “We need to return to the airport.”

Moments later, another person is heard saying: “We believe we saw their engine fall off the right wing.” The audio indicates the strike happened when the plane was several hundred feet off the ground.

FedEx cargo plane makes emergency landing following bird strike and engine fire

A FedEx cargo plane had to make an emergency landing at a busy New Jersey airport after a bird strike caused an engine fire that could be seen in the morning sky.

apnews.com

Xxxx

When I needed to travel more than 400 miles I’d fly. Otherwise I’d drive

Now I’ve always known flying is much safer statistically than driving.

But I hit a big turkey once at 85 miles an hour and my engine didn’t fall out, you know?

I hope they weren’t carrying a cargo of eggs.

Whew!

 

[Servant King]

Last time I was on a plane was 2017. I'll never, ever get on one again, under any circumstances. If a man was waiting for me elsewhere with a check for a billion dollars, and I was required to fly there in order to collect it, I'd turn it down.

NEVER.

You just never know when the plane will hit an airborne dandelion spore and explode into a million fiery pieces.

 

[SSGT.]

Flying really doesn't bother me, but the fact that the 1st sign on every airport I have ever been on reads AIRLINE TERMINAL. that really bothers me.

 

[Briar Lee]

Ruminations on bird strikes

In 1962 when I was 4 1/2 my mother tricked me into looking at a jet plane so I could have her read me about Airplanes from my new World Book volume A.

Made a bookworm out of me even before I could read.

There have been countless planes and birds occupying the same air space for many, many, many years. They have to hit birds.


What I think is, I read the Pope is feeling a little better today, no renal failure or ventilators, although he’s not out of the woods yet, and it dawns on me the digital newspapers are tricking me into reading them by good stories about how ATC said they thought they saw an engine fall off.

It’s news, but not very new.

 

[telescopes]

I‘ve flown literally hundreds of times, with never an issue. But I’ve known quite a few people personally who were killed crossing an intersection.

 

[fireground_piper]

I don't fly, but I know the bird thing happens quite a bit. They try to deploy all sorts of deterrent measures.

 

[SSGT.]

I‘ve flown literally hundreds of times, with never an issue. But I’ve known quite a few people personally who were killed crossing an intersection.

Being retired military I've done it on more than one occasion and obviously lived through the experience. Most likely if I need to get somewhere fast, I'll do it again. However, until that time comes, I support the belief that, that is the reason God gave us rental car with unlimited mileage.

When a car engine overheats you can pull over to the shoulder and abandoned it, try that at 5,000 feet.

 

[sablebrush52]

Back in 1995 I was up in Portland Oregon visiting Will Vinton Studio, who were one of our subcontractors on Marvin The Martian In The 3rd Dimension.

Our visit was cut short by Warner Brothers, who had gotten word that a massive storm was ramping up and that the Vinton Studio could be at risk from flooding. We were ordered to get back ups of their work and get to the airport where seats had been reserved for us.

While the back ups were being made I watched through the studio's windows as the trees on the hills began to sway with the coming of the storm. One of the Vinton staff was following weather reports as the storm gathered force, gaily calling out the mounting damage. I remember him happily calling out, "The roofs are blowing off the houses in Eugene!" as the exabyte tapes were handed off to us and I looked out at the trees which were now bending at about a 45+˚ angle, with torrential rain coming down.

As we made our way to the airport, dodging fallen trees, and stranded cars, I thought longingly of our cozy digs at the Heathman Hotel and suggested to my companion that we tell the studio to fuck off and hunker down, but Doug was missing his wife and she was missing him, and so he wanted to get back to LA.

We made our way to our plane and as I boarded I couldn't help but notice that the crew looked a little bilious, and not a little scared.

We strapped in and the chief steward told us over the intercom that the flight would be a bit bumpy, so to stay strapped in. I didn't know until the end of the flight that the landing had been really rough, hence the pallor of the crew.

The plane took off and from the moment we left the ground the cabin was pitching and rolling like nothing I had ever before experienced. During the climb the plane hit an air pocket and dropped. People were screaming. I was levitating out of my chair, and we hit air and returned to climbing only to hit another pocket and drop again. I was not feeling kindly toward Doug or his wife at that moment.

When we reached our cruising altitude one of the stewardesses started to get up to start service and the chief steward yelled at her, "Sit down honey! I want you alive at the end of this flight".

For the next two hours that plane war constantly thrown about, constantly rolling and pitching, and as we approached LAX there was no sign of a let up. People were totally silent, many of them with their heads down looking at their laps.

Pitch and roll, pitch and roll little drops and sudden rises as we continued on our approach. No let up until, less than a minute before we touched ground, the turbulence faded away and the pilot landed the plane, coming in a little hot and working the flaps to slow us down. As soon as we rolled to a crawl, the entire cabin was filled with cheers. A few people started singing. Could have been hymns for all I know.

Making my way past the door to the flight deck I heard the pilot forcefully telling whoever was on the other end of that call that they were not going back up, they were done for the day, and any problem with that was their problem, before ending the call.

Shortly after that Portland Airport was shut down.

The studio had a limo waiting for us (that's how it was done in those days) to take us back to the lot where we could retrieve our cars.

It takes one hell of a lot to knock a plane out of the sky and to this day I don't notice the usual turbulence whatsoever.

 

[sablebrush52]

I don't fly, but I know the bird thing happens quite a bit. They try to deploy all sorts of deterrent measures.

They should paint the exterior of the plane with images of cats.

 

[anotherbob]

They should paint the exterior of the plane with images of cats.

They should. But I don't think the birds will care. In fact they might decide it's a worth sacrifice to get that many cats in one go. Dave was an unremarkable duck until he took out over 20 felines.

 

[renfield]

We design and test for bird strike, bird ingestion, rotor burst and blade loss.

That being said we’ve had more than one aircraft come through our service center that had clearly hit something mechanical, i.e. a drone. Stupid mf’ers try to get as close as they can to an airplane to get some video with no thought about the danger in which they’re putting other people.

 

[Briar Lee]

We design and test for bird strike, bird ingestion, rotor burst and blade loss.

That being said we’ve had more than one aircraft come through our service center that had clearly hit something mechanical, i.e. a drone. Stupid mf’ers try to get as close as they can to an airplane to get some video with no thought about the danger in which they’re putting other people.

A question.

When the Allied air forces were tag teaming Berlin with thousand bomber raids escorted by fighters and the Luftwaffe was swarming all the bombers, they had bird strikes.

They had to.

What happens to a propeller when it strikes a bird?

 

[wyfbane]

I think it would depend on the size of the bird and if there was a whole flock pushed through the prop.

I had a buddy flying in the South Pacific and one of the engines on his C-130 just up and fell into the ocean. They made it to destination and landed, but it made for a great story.

 

[renfield]

A question.
What happens to a propeller when it strikes a bird?

It depends on the size of the bird, but usually not too much with a metal prop. Modern composite props are a more sensitive. They’ll sometimes require a metal leading edge.

Hitting ice and other debris thrown up by the landing gear while on the ground can be a bigger and more common problem.

A flock of birds is obviously more of a problem for a prop or plane but we don’t try to account for that.

Design for birds, rotorburst etc is to minimize the risk and give you a chance to get home but there will be times where it wasn’t your day to fly.

Interestingly the requirements are different for European certification because they statistically have more and larger birds.

One of my old bosses hit a very large bird in a T-38, a buzzard of some kind. Part of the bird made it into the cockpit and hit him in the chest. He was unhurt but it made for a gory picture.