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Med Flight makes emergency landing after bird strike


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Saturday evening (Jan. 17th) Baptist Med-Flight departed Memphis enroute back to Little Rock without a patient. Med Flight struck a flock of birds around the Forrest City area and made an emergency landing. The pilot suffered some minor injuries and everyone was shaken up. Med-Flight pilots do not wear helmets. You can tell from the pictures how lucky he was to be able to land it after being injured.

http://flickr.com/photos/fireflyphotograph...57612944812758/

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Man, I can't even imagine what I would do if I hit a flock of ducks like that. A really good friend of mine hit a flock of Geese in a Piper seminole at night and unfortunently she nor her student lived to tell about it. I'm always always always preaching about the dangers of birds!!

 

On the flip side, anyone else notice where they landed next to?

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AngelFire_91 I am familiar with the Seminole that went down in 07. It happen not far from where I live. A real tragedy with two young people going down that way. I also know of a Schweizer in the Twin Cities that had an eagle come through the windshield striking the passenger. The pilot made it back to the airport OK (which was just a few miles away). The passenger had some injuries from the incident.

 

Birds are definitely something to be concerned about. In most cases I believe it is difficult if not impossible to avoid them, especially at night. If I fly EMS someday I think I will always try to wear a helmet with a face shield. It really makes sense.

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AngelFire_91 I am familiar with the Seminole that went down in 07. It happen not far from where I live.

 

Yeah, she was flying a Glass Avedyne Seminole, so when they downloaded the data from the ADHRS it wasn't pretty. Less then 30 seconds from strike to ground if I remember correctly, the horizontal stabilator got bent 90* to the wind when one of the birds hit it. I have pictures somewhere. Can't tell you how it feels to wake up expecting your going to see someone, getting an email saying an aircraft from our fleet didn't return, and then your someone not showing up when you expected.

 

I also remember hearing about that Eagle, I saw pictures from someone, but I can't remember now who it was.

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Less then 30 seconds from strike to ground if I remember correctly, the horizontal stabilator got bent 90* to the wind when one of the birds hit it. I have pictures somewhere. Can't tell you how it feels to wake up expecting your going to see someone, getting an email saying an aircraft from our fleet didn't return, and then your someone not showing up when you expected.

 

It was a sad day. I can't say I knew how you felt but my thoughts and prayers were with everyone that knew them.

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On the flip side, anyone else notice where they landed next to?

 

Ahhh yeah, I was imagining the pilot's phone call to his wife...

 

"Hi honey, I ran into some birds, will you come pick me up from the adult video store?"

 

[short silence]

click...:P

 

Seriously though, everyone was very lucky to make it through that. I've had a few close calls with birds, and those photos sure made me thankful that they were only close calls.

Edited by heli.pilot
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  • 2 weeks later...

Amazing how much damage a bird can do. In Alaska the bald eagles own the sky. They will not move out of your way so you have to constantly dodge around them. To be honest, I never realized just how much of a hazard they actually are until I saw these pictures!

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Eagle's are the top of the food chain for their 'category' and 'class' - they don't have any predators to pray on them, so they're not afraid of aircraft.

 

 

Amazing how much damage a bird can do. In Alaska the bald eagles own the sky. They will not move out of your way so you have to constantly dodge around them.
Edited by Mungo5
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They didn't just hit one they took out the whole family!

 

Maverick had a bird strick little over a year ago. Went thought the fron center window into the back firewall. Landed at Pearce Ferry Airport outside the Grand Canyon. All got out unhurt for the most part.

 

JD

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  • 8 months later...
If I ever see the pilot that got that one down safely the drinks will be on me. I would love to hear the first hand account of the incident. I would also be interested to hear what it will cost to repair the helicopter.

 

 

I met the pilot that had thoes ducks come threw the cabian!! He works for the same company I work for (Metro). He picked a pretty good landing area to shake off the nerves!!! :lol: :lol:

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