Posted on 08/08/2010 6:05:01 PM PDT by markomalley
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An eagle was sucked into an engine of an Alaska Airlines jet as the aircraft was taking off from a small southeast Alaska town Sunday, causing the flight to be aborted.
Seattle-bound Flight 68 was approaching takeoff speed when the eagle was ingested into the left engine shortly after 10 a.m. in Sitka. None of the 134 passengers or five crew members was hurt.
(snip)
The bird collision automatically shut off the plane's engine, airline spokesman Paul McElroy said.
McElroy said the jet braked to a stop about 3,000 feet from the end of the 6,500-foot runway, which ends at the water's edge. The plane then taxied back to the terminal with its single working engine.
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
So will the airline be fined for killing an eagle ?
Sitka “Zero Room For Mistakes” Airport
Damned lucky he was able to stop on that postage stamp-sized runway. Ending up in the waters there isn’t conducive to survival.
I'm a firm believer in the FACT! that weasels never get sucked into a jet's engine and not everyone should soar like an eagle.
I’ll be the incident caused the abortion of the eagle’s flight, too.
If they were able to stop with 3k left on a 6500 ft runway they couldn’t have been going very fast when they took the bird.
The article seems a bit conflicted. Approaching takeoff speed and getting stopped again in 3500 ft. is a bit much to believe.
Sounds like the most majestic aviation accident ever.
No shlitz, Sherlock.
What would we do without experts to explain these things to us?
Well, it wasn't because of a headwind, NOAA reports only 6 to 8 mph winds all day....:^)
Sounds like a bit of sensationalist reporting...
I’m sure that the eagle was singing, too.
“Oh say, can you seeeeeee...SHLUCKKKKKKK!!!!”
(Followed by gigantic turbofan burp)
Sorry, folks, it’s late. Time to log off.
;^)
I had a buddy that was going into one of the shorter runways around LA (the one where SWA ran off the end.) He was flying right seat and they set up for a flaps 40 landing and decided for the heck of it to select Auto Brakes 3. When they touched down and the brakes activated it was really impressive. So impressive that the passengers were screaming and my buddy and his captain decided not to pick that setting again.
I remember going through there when Alaska was still running -27’s on that route.
They’d stand on the brakes at the end of the runway, jam the throttles forward, and hope for the best.
So if a 737 driver really wanted to come to a stop in minimum (ie emergency) distance, what can they really do when passenger comfort is no longer an issue?
For an abort, like this instance, When you pull the throttles back the plane knows you are aborting, the spoilers deploy, the Auto Brakes activate, but because you lost one engine you don't want to use thrust reverse on the other.
Had this aircraft been going faster when the eagle hit it could have taken off, burned down to a suitable landing weight and returned for a single engine landing. When you are setting up to fly, these aircraft have very lengthy tables you churn through to come up with max abort speeds, single engine takeoff speeds, etc.
However, all 139 were taken into custody for the illegal murder of an endangered eagle, and will be fined $10,000 each and spend 1 year in a federal prison.
Mark
“The article seems a bit conflicted. Approaching takeoff speed and getting stopped again in 3500 ft. is a bit much to believe.”
No, they were approaching it. They were still very far from it, but they were approaching it.
I’m thinking that they are exaggerating the speed. He came up to almost takeoff speed, then reacted and came to a full halt using only one engine for braking, in a fully loaded plane, all in 3500 feet?
“...using only one engine for braking,”
That would be the fastest U-turn you’d ever make!
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