page_title: Bird strike
section_title: Event description
hierarchical_section_title: Bird strike / Event description
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Fan blades of JT8D Jet engine after a bird strike Türkçe: Bir JT8D Jet motorunun Kuş çarpması neticesinde hasara uğramış fan pallerinin görünümü
context_page_description: A bird strike—sometimes called birdstrike, bird ingestion, bird hit, or bird aircraft strike hazard —is a collision between an airborne animal and a manmade vehicle, usually an aircraft. The term is also used for bird deaths resulting from collisions with structures such as power lines, towers and wind turbines.
  Bird strikes are a significant threat to flight safety, and have caused a number of accidents with human casualties. There are over 13,000 bird strikes annually in the US alone. However, the number of major accidents involving civil aircraft is quite low and it has been estimated that there is only about 1 accident resulting in human death in one billion flying hours. The majority of bird strikes cause little damage to the aircraft; however the collision is usually fatal to the bird involved.
  Particularly, the Canada goose has been ranked as the third most hazardous wildlife species to aircraft with approximately 240 goose-aircraft collisions in the United States each year. 80% of all bird strikes go unreported.
  Most accidents occur when a bird collides with the windscreen or is sucked into the engine of jet aircraft.
context_section_description: Bird strikes happen most often during takeoff or landing, or during low altitude flight. However, bird strikes have also been reported at high altitudes, some as high as 6,000 to 9,000 m (20,000 to 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 Ivory Coast collided with a Rüppell's vulture at the altitude of 11,300 m (37,100 ft), the current record avian height. The majority of bird collisions occur near or at 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 (98 ft).
  The point of impact is usually any forward-facing edge of the vehicle such as a wing leading edge, nose cone, jet engine cowling or engine inlet.
  Jet engine ingestion is extremely serious due to the rotation speed of the engine fan and engine design. As the bird strikes a fan blade, that blade can be displaced into another blade and so forth, causing a cascading failure. Jet engines are particularly vulnerable during the takeoff phase when the engine is turning at a very high speed and the plane is at a low altitude where birds are more commonly found.
  The force of the impact on an aircraft depends on the weight of the animal and the speed difference and direction at the point of impact. The energy of the impact increases with the square of the speed difference. High-speed impacts, as with jet aircraft, can cause considerable damage and even catastrophic failure to the vehicle. The energy of a 5 kg (11 lb) bird moving at a relative velocity of 275 km/h (171 mph) approximately equals the energy of a 100 kg (220 lb) weight dropped from a height of 15 metres (49 ft). However, according to the FAA only 15% of strikes (ICAO 11%) actually result in damage to the aircraft.
  Bird strikes can damage vehicle components, or injure passengers. Flocks of birds are especially dangerous and can lead to multiple strikes, with corresponding damage. Depending on the damage, aircraft at low altitudes or during take-off and landing often cannot recover in time. US Airways Flight 1549 is a classic example of this. The engines on the Airbus A320 used on that flight were torn apart by multiple bird strikes at low altitude. There was no time to make a safe landing at an airport, forcing a water landing in the Hudson River.
  Remains of the bird, termed snarge, are sent to identification centers where forensic techniques may be used to identify the species involved. These samples need to be taken carefully by trained personnel to ensure proper analysis and reduce the risks of infection (zoonoses).
caption: View of fan blades of Pratt & Whitney JT8D jet engine after a bird strike
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