An Air Pressure B-52H Stratofortress bomber was just lately broken in a skirmish alongside the northern U.S. border with foes a fraction of its dimension: birds.
Air Pressure spokesperson Justin Oakes mentioned Tuesday {that a} B-52H at Minot Air Pressure Base, North Dakota, hit a flock of birds in midair Nov. 3, prompting an investigation into how badly the aircraft — together with its eight jet engines — was affected.
Nobody was damage within the incident, which seems to have been captured on video and posted to social media the identical day.
“I can’t affirm the connection or origin of this video,” Oakes mentioned. “There was an analogous occasion at Minot.”
Within the put up uploaded by Fb consumer Andrew Tancabel, a wide-winged plane plowed by a line of birds, which Tancabel believed have been Canadian geese. Moments later, darkish smoke seems to billow from the jet’s 4 pairs of engines because it flies away from the digicam.
Oakes declined to reply how the crew onboard the plane reacted to the dicey scenario.
“That hen strike is at present present process the traditional security investigation course of to find out what sort of hen, consider the injury brought on to the plane, and see if there may be something that may be realized to stop future mishaps of this nature,” he mentioned.
Chook strikes are an occupational hazard for the airmen who share their skies; about 100 such mishaps are documented annually, in accordance with the Air Pressure Security Heart. The collisions might be extreme however are hardly ever deadly to airmen.
Minot’s fifth Bomb Wing flies the long-range, nuclear-capable bomber on typical fight and nuclear deterrence missions around the globe. The Air Pressure has owned its fleet of practically 80 Stratofortresses since 1962.
Rachel Cohen joined Air Pressure Occasions as senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in Air Pressure Journal, Inside Protection, Inside Well being Coverage, the Frederick Information-Submit (Md.), the Washington Submit, and others.
