Investigators Find Signs Birdstrike May Have Caused Crash of Flight 587

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 13, 2001 | SCOTT MCCARTNEY

[Axion]

Investigators examining one of the separated engines from American Airlines Flight 587 found foreign debris inside, indicating that the engine may have ingested a flock of birds and then caught on fire.

The engine burned internally, people close to the investigation said. But its parts appeared intact, except for the damage from what is known in aviation as ``foreign object debris,'' or ``FOD.'' That would suggest that the engine didn't suffer a catastrophic failure from some mechanical breakdown, but from sucking in birds, these people said.

[riri]

oh, yes, but ofcourse!

[vrwc54]

Blame it on the birds-Dead birds don't tell tales.

[Black Agnes]

Kamikaze geese!

[kingh99]

Birdsign! Artreides king of the Birdpeople summons thee!

[cookcounty]

The NTSB's leading ornithologist discovered an intact goose wishbone lodged between the fan blades.

[Woodstock]

Yah right....but no one in the cockpit is recorded saying, 'OH $hit! Where are those windshield wipers!'

[SkyShot]

We will make no distinction between birds and the nations that harbor them.

[anniegetyourgun]

Obviously this kind of thing never happens, the government officials must be lying, and we'll never know the real truth.

How am I doing? Do I have this down yet?

[Thinkin' Gal]

But typically even if ingesting birds causes an engine to fail, a twin-engine plane like the A300 can fly on its remaining engine.

But you see, these birds were atypical.

[KirklandJunction]

Do the bird ingestion tests now use one bird or more? Only one back in the '60s.

[Syncro]

I guess this is one of the airports with out falconers.

[homegroan]

Does this mean that God will be sued for giving birds wings?

[rickmoe]

the tail got hit by a BIG FUGGING BIRD !!!!!!!!!!

[Barry Goldwater]

How can a bird strike knock off wings, engines etc? I don't think it was a birdstrike.

[NautiNurse]

This possible cause was discussed yesterday on one of the news channels. Apparently, birds are enough of a problem at JFK Airport, they have used cannons prior to takeoff. When I heard this story yesterday, I recall wondering if this was a viable possibility in mid-November. I would have thought the birds had already started their migration by now.

Any bird watching afficionados in the know?

[Thinkin' Gal]

Investigators Find Signs Birdstrike May Have Caused Crash of Flight 587

[d14truth]

Just goes to show, it's the enviro-whackos fault for EPA and preserving all those 'birds' in the wetlands near bodies of water and, at the same time, coastal airports.

Of course, the birds were there first; so, we'll just have to move the airports to remote locations/reservations. Of course, we can't endanger any other species in doing so.

Just have to go back to walking I guess.(Hope I don't step on too many insects) {;~)