Posted on 07/08/2008 10:39:50 PM PDT by george76
Don’t blame a bird for the punch that the Northwest Airlines plane took in the nose on Sunday.
Northwest is now examining the dented nose cone of a Boeing 757 jet that was damaged during a flight from Detroit to Tampa. Images snapped by passengers... show the front tip of the plane looking a bit like a beer cup smashed in after a football game.
Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the F.A.A. in Atlanta, said pilots heard a bang when the plane was at 18,000 feet during its descent into Tampa. Its radar went out, prompting the crew to suspect a problem with the fiberglass cover of the nose cone, called a radome.
They slowed the aircraft and notified air traffic control officials. However, the crew did not declare an emergency before landing safely.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelede.blogs.nytimes.com ...
What? Nonsense?
There is an angel in heaven somewhere with a massive headache.
A Northwest Airlines 757-200 sustained damage inflight Sunday as it neared Tampa, Fla. The plane's nose cone, also known as the radome, was dented. While a bird was the initial suspect, regulators are now saying the dent apparently resulted from "internal structural failure." The plane landed safely. (Special to Pioneer Press: Peter Brylinke---http://www.twincities.com/ci_9818109?source=most_viewed
That looks like nothing more than a rotten radome collapsing in flight.
And since NWA farmed out most all of its maintenance I can beleive that that is the case.
Poor Santa!
Oh BTW, I made that determination at first glance of the image before I read anything.
Would hail do this kind of damage ?
Could some sort of sudden change in pressure do this? If it were a bird or another object I think you would either have a mark from that object or some paint taken off the nosecone. I am guessing a dented nosecone doesn’t effect the handling of an aircraft all that much?
*laughs* Least I’m not the only one who came to the same conclusion on seeing the image. Read the story, was thinking bird, then saw the nose cone and just said ‘internal failure’.
No, but a guy floating around in a lawn chair would!! Or maybe it is some of that strange greenish-blue frozen water that mysteriously falls out of the sky?? LOL
Collision with a Red Chinese MiG?
It’s happened before......
It does seem suspicious that the exact tip of the nose of the plane would be impacted.
“While a bird was the initial suspect,..........”
I wonder what type of oxygen mask the bird was wearing at 18,000 feet?
At 18,000 feet?
Look for a goose with a dented honker.
Having been a professional pilot for nearly 30 years, I can state these as facts:
1. Hail can indeed do this type of damage. Unlikely in this case because it would also have damaged a large part of the skin of the aircraft, especially the leading edge of the wings.
2. 18,000’ is not the highest altitude where hail damage has occurred. Hail is created by water being constantly “rolled” up and down inside of a thunderstorm cell by up and down drafts. The level of energy in the cell determines how long the water “rolls” and when finally released, that alone determines the size of the hail stones. You have seen “golfball” and “softball” size hail in the news. The larger ones usually occur in the more southern states, where thunderstorm cells can reach in excess of 60,000’ altitude.
Large birds have been seen as high as 40,000 ft.
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