Date: 201206
Local time of day: 0601-1200
Location: TUL.Airport, OK
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Landing; Parked
Airspace: Class C TUL
ATC / advisory: Tower TUL
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Confusion; Training / Qualification; Troubleshooting; Workload
Second reporter function: First Officer
Anomaly: Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Person / Animal / Bird
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight; Aircraft In Service At Gate
Result: Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Maintenance Action; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Contributing factors: Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; Aircraft; Company Policy
Primary problem: Ambiguous

Narrative: We flew a visual approach to Runway 26 at TUL. An aircraft departed Runway 26 right before we landed. At approximately 50 FT AGL; approximately 30 pigeons flew up from the runway landing zone. We were in the flare when we took multiple bird strikes to the aircraft. Touchdown was normal and we did not think any birds had gone into an engine since we could not smell anything unusual. We informed Tower and Operations of the bird strikes and taxied to the gate. Upon initial inspection of the aircraft; I counted at least 14 bird strikes. Most were in the nose gear wheel well; the LE devices and the TE flaps. At least one or two birds entered the number two engine. One shattered the right Retractable Landing light. Contract Maintenance arrived to clean and inspect the aircraft along with help from a Company Apprentice Mechanic. After cleaning the LE and TE devices and hand cleaning the birds from the number two engine; Duty Control advised the Mechanic to wash the number two engine with a water hose. I; along with the Apprentice Mechanic; motored the engine while the engine was being washed. The Apprentice Mechanic pulled the ENG ignition CBs as a safety precaution. After the wash; the First Officer and I attempted to start the engine. We did not get a light off on the first attempt due to the ENG ignition CBs not being reset. We aborted the engine start and motored the engine for 60 seconds per the QRH. We reset the CBs; and on the second start attempt; we got a normal light off; but before we obtained rollback; the Number 2 Engine Overheat light illuminated. We aborted the start and the overheat light extinguished. The Mechanic talked to Duty Control and they advised him to open the engine cowls and perform an inspection of the fire/overheat loops and check lose fittings and air leaks. Nothing out of the ordinary was found. Duty Control then advised us to motor the engine for five minutes and then attempt to start it. I called a Chief Pilot to discuss this with him and he advised me to continue with Duty Control's recommendation. Approximately 2.5 minutes into the motoring; the Number 2 Engine Overheat light illuminated again and we discontinued motoring the engine. At this point; I determined that we were not going to attempt any more starts. This event was one that was hard to avoid. Even though there were many pigeons on the runway; we could not see them until they started flying because they blended in with the runway. An attempt to perform a go-around could have resulted in multiple birds going into both engines and created a more dangerous situation. Every step that was taken after the bird strikes was done under the advisement of Duty Control.




Synopsis: A B737 landing TUL Runway 27 struck pigeons which impacted the flaps; slats; landing lights and right engine. Attempting to start the right engine after cleaning it; resulted in ENG OVHT warning as did motoring the engine for 2.5 minutes after the start attempt.