Could the birds clog the plane’s engines and cause it to go on fire ultimately leading to a plane crash? Are there any reports of this? I’m talking like a Boeing 747 not a Cesna.
If a jet plane flew into the path of a flock of birds could it crash the plane?
by admin | August 26, 2008 | In Plane Crashes
4:23 am on August 26th, 2008
Happens all the time - if a bird flies into the open part of where the propeller is? - it causes major malfunction as in: it just STOPS and, yes, the plane crashes.
12:35 pm on August 29th, 2008
the birds would die that is all
2:06 am on August 30th, 2008
The engines are suppose to survive the bird hits. But sometimes the engine will die and crash.
Here’s a test of bird strike
Here’s a bird strike when the bird wins
Good Luck…
5:30 pm on August 31st, 2008
anythings possible. i doubt it has or ever will happen though
4:28 pm on September 2nd, 2008
My uncle helped design those engines. He claims there would be no way that scenario could play true. So the answer would be no.
ADDITIONAL: You wrote Boeing 747 class engine. Those other people are talking about smaller engines, so their examples have no credence in this matter.
5:03 am on September 3rd, 2008
clogging the engine not the problem, breaking the turbines, no that’s a problem
7:35 am on September 6th, 2008
It would take a mighty big flock, but yes.The most sensetive time is takeoff and landing.Those planes fly too high to be bothered by birds.
12:40 am on September 9th, 2008
It has happened before and it could happen again - tho it hasn’t for many years. Theoretically, a flock of birds could clog up both engines as well as pierce the cockpit, thus disabling the pilots and depressurizing the cabin. But really; you’re much more likely to be struck by lightning than experience such a crash. Relax
12:30 pm on September 10th, 2008
Kinda depends on a lot of factors, it is possible though unlikely but could happen but maybe not.
10:40 am on September 11th, 2008
I could and has
10:52 pm on September 13th, 2008
The birds would destroy the fans in the front of the jet causing severe damage as well as major vibrations. The vibrations are capable of furthering the extent of the damage and on multi-turbine aircraft, the pilot would shut down the engine to keep damage to a minimum as most airliners can safely fly on one engine ex) B757, A321. The chance of an aircraft going down from this are small but not unheard of ( The AWACS plane the guy above said went down). The tiniest of objects can cause severe Foreign Object Damage on turbine engines. An example of this I saw on an F/A-18 hooked up to the catapult of the aircraft carrier. A tiny nut got sucked into the right engine and massive flames and sparks shot out of the back, probably completely destroying the engine.
11:52 am on September 15th, 2008
Yes. Bird strikes are a common occurance and lead to millions of dollars of damage to many aircraft each year. With todays multi-engined jet aircraft bird strikes do not usually “crash” the plane but put out one ot two engines at a cost of 5 to 10 million a each. Bird strikes are far more deadly for military jets that have only one engine. A jet went down at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage Alaska a few years ago Killing all aboard. !3 people I think it was.
2:19 am on September 16th, 2008
Likely the engines could sustain damage but the plane would not just fall out of the sky.
8:49 pm on September 17th, 2008
big time crashes on occasion.
6:57 pm on September 19th, 2008
it could happen but since a boeing 747 has 4 engines im sure he could use the other engines and still make it to a close airport
5:54 pm on September 22nd, 2008
Depends on the aircraft, the speed of the aircraft, the size of the bird, the direction of the flock relative to the direction of flight, and where the aircraft got hit.
Worst case scenario it would be hard to take down a 747 unless it was doing 350knots and ran into a bunch of condors
10:45 am on September 23rd, 2008
The airplane have turbines in their engines…when a bird come to a nearby flying jet ( boeing 747 etc ) the birds are sucked into the engine and the engine gets crash..the blades of the engine breaks into pieces and hence the engine dont work and then the plane crashes!
thank you
9:02 pm on September 26th, 2008
it depends greatly on the size of the engine, the size of the bird, the speed of the bird and the plane …
7:50 am on September 30th, 2008
Is it possible, yes. Is it likely, no.
The most common scenario is that one or more birds get sucked into the engine and killed. A less common scenario might be that an engine fails.
A 747 can take multiple engine failures and not instantly crash. The plane can be flown (really glided) even with no engines.
10:22 am on October 3rd, 2008
Jet engines have to be certified by the FAA before they are allowed into revenue service. Part of the testing requirement for this certification is bird ingestion. The videos reference by “Lover” are probably from an FAA required test. An engine must be able to withstand a large bird strike or several smaller bird strikes. Birds strikes do happen during commercial service and the planes survive. If enough birds hit enough engines on a plane in the wrong place (primary gas path) they could bring a plane down, but statistics show that this is very unlikely.
6:08 pm on October 5th, 2008
It can, does and has happened before. An Air Force E-3A Sentry (AWACS) crashed after flying into a flock of geese on take off in Alaska. A B-1A prototype crashed after hitting a single Turkey Buzzard at over 500 KTS.
A C-5A Flew through a flock of Canadian Snow Geese on take off from Dover AFB. Lost 2 engs and had min power in a 3rd. It managed to make an emergency return.