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.

[callisto]

both engines possibly suffered bird strikes.

The possibility also exists that one or both engines had some foreign object or debris deliberately placed in them. Wouldn't that also allow for the supposed delay on the ground prior to take off?

I see many plausible scenarios here, but they haven't presented enough facts yet to determine credibly the cause of the accident. Hopefully more will be forthcoming soon.

[Office Manager]

I said this yesterday....it will be the birds or the butterflies or moths or flying monkeys...

yep, now we have to worry about flying animals when we board planes!

Again, if you're at war and your warships are sinking, it's not an iceberg or killer whales!!

here we go again.....

[d14truth]

'Aviation related problem'--- 'A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS'???

[mewzilla]

Only video I've ever seen has them lobbing one big frozen Butterball at a a time during tests in a wind tunnel. I didn't know that there was a flying frozen Butterball problem around JFK. Silly me. Guess one of those frozen, pesky things must have been what knocked the tail off. Then undoubtedly it came around in a hairpin turn and got itself sucked into the engine.

Boy, I really hate it when that happens.

[rit]

perhaps it was a bird brain that was responsible for this theory

[EggsAckley]

NTSB: "They're just not buying the mechanical failure thing,
we gotta come up with something else, fast. Ooh, ooh, I GOT it!
We'll blame it on a bird, no, better yet, a FLOCK of birds!
Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket."

[Elihu Burritt]

Scary. How to Brits sleep at night?

[demsux]

All your birds are belong to us.

[TheRightGuy]

Another possibility, these people suggested, is that both engines possibly suffered bird strikes.

Osama's Air Force?

[VRWC_minion]

So its the fault of enviromentalist wackos who insist on the nature preserve ?

[EggsAckley]

In my opinion, the NTSB is not off the hook until
we hear that cockpit tape!

[vrwc54]

LOL...You're too much!

[Woodkirk]

Well said -- and dead birds also don't shear off tail sections.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

PETA won't like this. But birds must be barred from the US without the proper passports.

[Hildy]

I'm serious when I ask you why don't you believe this? It's happened before.

[concerned about politics]

You mean to tell me a flockin' bird took the plane down? Pleeeease!
The bird must have bit the wing off and spit it at the tail.
It was like a giant bird fight?
I'm sorry, but this story just doesn't fly well.

[lonestar]

I see many plausible scenarios here, but they haven't presented enough facts yet to determine credibly the cause of the accident. Hopefully more will be forthcoming soon.

It doesn't matter. There will always be people who don't believe the "facts" because they prefer conspiracy! In their minds, there has never been an accident.

[anniegetyourgun]

You get the prize for coming up with the government story before they did, eh? How long have you known that Bush was a liar and would go to these lengths to deceive the American people?

[NorseWood]

What a bunch of turkeys!!

[concerned about politics]

both engines possibly suffered bird strikes.

OH, so it was a stratigic bird attack!