2024-06-21 20:02:36
The pilot continued the flight with one remaining engine and the aircraft’s 73 passengers and crew made an emergency touchdown at close by Invercargill Airport.
Virgin Australia says the dramatic flip of occasions was attributable to a “doable hen strike”. However Queenstown Airport stated “no birds had been seen on the airport on the time”.
Though it isn’t recognized precisely what occurred, hen strikes are a standard and actual hazard to plane. It could actually harm planes and even kill folks.
How widespread are hen encounters?
The primary collision between an plane and a hen occurred in 1905. Orville Wright flying over a cornfield in Ohio, USA.
These collisions now happen every day, however because of hen migration, they range barely seasonally.
Maybe probably the most well-known such incident occurred in 2009, when a US Airways flight collided with a flock of migrating Canada geese shortly after takeoff from a New York airport. Each of the aircraft’s engines failed, and Captain Sully Sullenberger was pressured to land within the Hudson River.
2008-2017 The Australian Transport Security Board recorded 16,626 hen strikes. In America, the Federal Aviation Administration alone in 2022. reported 17,200 hen encounters.
The place do hen collisions happen and what are their penalties?
In response to the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group, 90 p.c hen strikes happen close to airports. This typically happens when plane are taking off or touchdown, or when flying at decrease altitudes the place hen exercise is highest.
The impression of a hen strike is dependent upon many components, together with the kind of plane. Such an incident may cause an engine to close down, as occurred on a Virgin Australia flight, for instance. This aircraft was a Boeing 737-800, which might fly brief distances with one engine.
Smaller plane, particularly single-engine plane, might be deadly in collisions with birds. Since 1988 262 deadly hen strikes and 250 plane crashes have been reported worldwide.
How do producers and pilots shield themselves from hen strikes?
Most hen encounters happen early within the morning or at sundown when the birds are most lively. Pilots are educated to be alert at such occasions.
Radars can be utilized to trace flocks of birds. Nonetheless, this expertise is terrestrial and never out there worldwide, so it can’t be used in every single place.
Boeing and Airbus, the 2 largest producers of passenger planes, use turbojet engines. They compress air with a sequence of propeller blades after which add gas and flame to generate the thrust wanted for takeoff.
A hen hanging one in all these engines can severely harm the propeller blades, inflicting the engine to fail. Engine producers check the protection of those engines by operating a frozen rooster into them whereas the engine is operating at full throttle.
Additionally, in some nations, with the intention to deter birds from flying close to the runway, the sounds of gunshots are simulated, and in areas with excessive hen populations, airports also can use sure grasses and vegetation that don’t appeal to birds, in accordance with CNN.
2024-06-21 20:02:36