Incredible photos reveal how aircraft's nose COLLAPSED after bird flew into Turkish Airlines plane

UK Daily Mail ^ | May 6, 2015 | John Hutchinson

[ConservativeStatement]

(headline edited to fit)

It is remarkable the damage a bird strike can cause.

[null and void]

[thackney]

[Darksheare]

Once saw a pic of a plane that ingested a pelican into the fiberglass nose cone.
The bird, what was left of it, was still inside.

[Sasparilla]

A hit a couple of feet higher would have led to a different headline

[MeshugeMikey]

I have to wonder what sort of Bird it was that “made contact” with the nose of that plane??

[outofsalt]

That’s where a propeller comes in handy.

[Oliviaforever]

Did the bird have insurance?

[Carpe Cerevisi]

[ConservativeStatement]

And the final score of tonight’s game: Boeing 1, Bird 0.

[MeshugeMikey]

ahahahahah THANK YOU

BIG BIRD....in a similar pose...crossed my mind..

[JoeProBono]

[Army Air Corps]

Well, for one thing, the nose cone is not metal.

[5thGenTexan]

Not really. The windscreen angle and think was make it fair better than the low odds direct strike on the tip of the nose.

[jasbd1985]

I used to work maintenance planning for an airline. It’s crazy the amount of things that can go wrong on a plane during flight. Short of flying into a mountain or a bomb bird strikes were some of the worst. Planes get struck by lightning fairly often and generally all that happens is the lights might flicker, but get a bird strike, and prepare for that plane to be out of commission for a while.

[5thGenTexan]

How did thickness become think?

[MeshugeMikey]

that one looks like a reasonable candidate...

[IronJack]

I wondered that too. I thought they were fiberglass. A metal cap would interfere with the radar and avionic components inside, no?

[ican'tbelieveit]

plane hit by lightning that landed at Denver recently:

[the OlLine Rebel]

It could be fiberglass, but then it would much more likely crack.

Much of aircraft skin is made of thin aluminum. Not very tough, but much more malleable than fiberglass or most composites. It bends, doesn’t break, like this.