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  Asara at 12:03 AM JST - 17th January

  It says every 2-3 hours one bird crushes into an airplane in USA. They should adopt better technology and methods to keep away those birds.

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  toguro at 12:26 AM JST - 17th January

  Asara: Either that, or come up with a design for the engines to be able to absorb a bird with minimal to no damage at all.

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  nandakandamanda at 01:04 AM JST - 17th January

  On the J radio today someone senior in aviation was saying that there are about 1,300 instances of birds getting sucked into passenger jet engines, ie bird strikes, every year in Japan. What is unusual in this case in NY is for both engines to get hit simultaneously.

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  usaexpat at 01:04 AM JST - 17th January

  Lucky that everyone survived but it must have been one hell of a scare and a none too pleasant swim.

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  bushlover at 01:38 AM JST - 17th January

  toguro, the only thing not to damage an aircraft engine is liquid. Solids, even a one yen coin will damage gas turbine engines and they will be unusable. Birds in the air and stones on the ground are the hardest FOD to control.

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  ca1ic0cat at 02:29 AM JST - 17th January

  From what I'm hearing the birds in question were a bunch of Canada geese, which are anywhere from 3-9kg. Jet engines are tests for resistance for chicken size birds but the eyewitnesses say that there was more than one goose per engine. An extreme situation probably exacerbated by the cold weather we've been having forcing the geese into one area.

  The pilot did a great job of ditching the plane.

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  wspillma at 02:53 AM JST - 17th January

  According to one news source, the A320 had something called a 'ditch' switch that closes off many openings into the plane allowing it to float for an extended period of time. This seems to be why it stayed afloat with people standing on the wings. Also, the whole episode is a strong recommendation for both the quality of the pilot and the quality of the airplane.

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  toguro at 07:00 AM JST - 17th January

  bushlover: Thanks for the information. I understand that with the engines we have now, that's how it is. I was wondering if there was any way that an engine could be desingned that could be able to absorb something like a bird, or at least minimize the damage/danger if one were to be sucked into the engine.

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  bushlover at 10:31 AM JST - 17th January

  Well toguro engines are kind of linear with air going in and being compressed at a high rate and then burned in a chamber with a fuel mixture and then shot out through the back turbines. The compressor blades decreasing in size with small blades that turn and rows of them that don't makes it hard for solids to go through without causing trouble. Imagine your car hitting a deer, kangaroo etc and the damage to the metal even at a slow speed. Well now take a high speed. Jet engines that big can suck in a human and grind them like a blender but the engine metal still gets damaged big time. If there were a way to filter out the hard bits then that would be implemented already but that is the problem. It can't be done. Birds have been an aviation hazard since flight began.

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  whyamiinjapan at 02:25 PM JST - 17th January

  "Birds have been an aviation hazard since flight began." Very ironic.

  EX-passengers is the proper term for those people I think.

  The woman with two broken legs may have been unlucky but I wonder if she properly buckled in.

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  telecasterplayer at 01:40 PM JST - 18th January

  Japanese survivor tells of jet going down into Hudson River

  It's a lot like the tale of the other 154 survivors, except at the end he goes home and eats natto.

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  ralphrepo at 12:51 AM JST - 20th January

  The impelled organic substances really only damages the blades and are then ground into a pulp before you can blink. However, fragments of the blades (likened to shrapnel) then cause destruction to the engine, with each subsequent moving metal piece being bent out of shape contributing to and amplifying the overall damage. Average of about 7000 bird strikes in the US annually, with a much lesser number actually affecting an engine; rarer still, is a double bird strike (as was this case). Various anti-wildlife devices have been tried, but the most effective seems to be to decrease their numbers in the area. Wildlife conservationists have opposed killing them (as was past practice). Anti-sink ditch switch was not employed in this instance. One passenger actually almost flooded the floating aircraft by opening the rear door and allowing water to rush in, but was luckily stopped by a stewardess. The pilot knew that the Hudson river had high volume river commuter traffic, where chance of fast rescue was high. He purposely aimed for the middle of their traffic lanes. Had these river boats not been there, many of the survivors may have died of hypothermia. All in all, a serendipitous combination of training, skill, steady nerves, and extreme luck, to have such a wonderful outcome.

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  motytrah at 02:43 AM JST - 20th January

  It's US Air, the worst of the worst for the US carriers. Pilots are excellent, everything else about the airline kind'a stinks.

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  Yelnats at 07:42 PM JST - 21st January

  I say put razor mess screens over the engines. That should take care of the problem, and in the rear put a collection funnel for the fine Sashimi of bird served for free to the cattle in economy.

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  taiko666 at 02:37 PM JST - 22nd January

  Yelnats: a razor mesh fine enough not to disrupt the airflow yet strong enough to withstand the impact of a 9kg object at 500mph?

  Better get Prof Frink onto it, muwaaaahey.

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