Damn Turkey (really)

One thing that has I have always heard from day one when learning to be a pilot was watch out for birds. Birds often choose airports to make their homes, although I can't really figure out why, but it is enough of a problem that many airports are taking counter measures against the feathered friends. For instance many larger airports on the east coast have installed air cannons at the ends of the runways that make a very loud noise every few seconds in hopes to scare a bird off. It seems to be working, as I personally have never had a bad experience with a bird.


Can a bird really be a problem to an airplane you ask? Of course. The biggest concern is probably getting a bird ingested in an engine, which as you can imagine would not be the best situation. There have been many reported engine failures on jet aircraft due to birds. There are many more issues though, and as we landed in Austin, TX last night, this is what greeted us as we walked towards our operations office:

Thankfully this was not our company's airplane. It was however caused by ONE bird --- one turkey vulture. According to the report, the airplane was coming into land at about 2000 feet and 190 knots (just over 200 mph) and there all the sudden was the turkey vulture. Thankfully the bird did not get ingested into any of the engines, but you can see the damage the bird caused. The plane landed without many problems (besides the obvious) and everyone was okay, although I am pretty sure the pilots needed a change of clothes after seeing that thing hit.