Arnhem Land - Helicopter Bird Strike - 14 July 2025

[SGM]

One passenger fatality.  A telecommunications technician.  Tragic.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-14/nt-police-investigating-fatal-helicopter-incident-in-gapuwiyak/105531216

[facthunter]

 Could happen toa fixed wing also.. Nev

[danny_galaga]

Just came here to post this. What an unlucky accident 😔 

[onetrack]

Gee, that must have been some decent sized bird. Poor bugger, how unlucky could you be?

 

I can recall a pilot operating a Cessna twin from the W.A. mainland to Koolan Island, way back in the early 80's, or perhaps even the late 70's, hitting a Sea Eagle (Osprey) that came through the windscreen on him.

 

It hit him smack in the face, knocked two of his front teeth out, and actually knocked him unconscious for a short period. The worst part was the bird carcass partly shredded and the cockpit filled with feathers and blood and guts.

 

He managed to keep control of the aircraft, he then turned back to the mainland and landed it successfully. It must have been a very stressful experience.

 

Edited July 15 by onetrack
punkchewation.....

[IanR]

On 15/07/2025 at 10:48 AM, facthunter said:

 Could happen toa fixed wing also.. Nev

Happened to me a couple of months ago in the middle of the Nullabor ! Lots of damage

[BrendAn]

59 minutes ago, IanR said:

Happened to me a couple of months ago in the middle of the Nullabor ! Lots of damage

it would have scared  sh#t out of you wouldn't it.  did it come through your windscreen.

i have heard of a truck in wa that had  a wedgetail eagle come through the windscreen and was still alive in the cabin. 

trouble with them is they feed on roadkill and don't move fast enough when you get near them.

[IanR]

33 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

it would have scared  sh#t out of you wouldn't it.  did it come through your windscreen.

i have heard of a truck in wa that had  a wedgetail eagle come through the windscreen and was still alive in the cabin. 

trouble with them is they feed on roadkill and don't move fast enough when you get near them.

The one that hit me was in attack mode. Hit the wing near the fuselage. Wakes you up. Pushed the leading edge back quite a way.

[facthunter]

I saw a C-180 where the bird went back to the Mainspar. Over Griffith in a Beech A-36 I only just missed a Large wedgetail at 8000 ft  Seemed as though it was asleep in a thermal. They will easily go through most  light aircraft's windscreens.  Nev

[Litespeed]

Definately a good reason for Lexan screens if you can afford it.

 

Or a open face helmet with bubble screen.

 

I hit a Galah at 120 kmh on a bike 35 years ago and still remember feeling been hit by a gorrilla with a sledge hammer.

 

The helmet screen took a direct hit, not cracked just scratched.

[Russ]

I’ll bet it was a wedgy, they’re everywhere up here, adults weighs 20+kg, imagine 20kg hitting your head at 100kts…….break your neck in a blink.

[onetrack]

They are a big bird, for sure, but nowhere near 20 kgs. The references all state around 6kg as a maximum body weight. Their sheer size does make them look like they weigh 20kgs, though.

 

I've raised a wedgetail eagle from a hen-sized chick to full adult size, after we unintentionally knocked its nest down during clearing operations.

 

This was 50 years ago, when there were no laws on keeping or raising wildlife. We called him Samson, but it's quite possible he was a she, because we never sexed the bird. When Samson was full grown, his wingspan was huge, easily 2.4M. Their talons are massively powerful, and razor sharp.

 

They're utterly fearless, as most aviators would know, they see light aircraft simply as intruders onto their territory, and are often quite prepared to confront them. They love attacking and destroying drones. Samson kept every dog that sighted him, utterly cowed.

 

But even a 6kg bird hitting your aircraft when you're travelling at 90kts, is enough to do a lot of damage.

 

Wedge-tailed eagle - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

 

Edited Thursday at 11:39 AM by onetrack

[SGM]

I'm told it was a "Crane".   These seem to be in the 4-8kg range.

Looks like it's not the first time a bird has brought down Bell 206L Longranger.  https://www.australianflying.com.au/helicopters/bird-strike-suspected-in-long-ranger-crash

I was once told landing lights "on" help birds avoid you... seems plausible.  Where I fly we have birds and roos. 

I sometimes wonder if $20 mini signal airhorn (the type used on boats) would be handy - but it would have to be mounted in a way that would be quick to activate perhaps with a pull cable for use on runway incursion or on final etc. 

Edited Thursday at 09:54 PM by SGM

[facthunter]

Pelicans and Frigate birds are of a higher order when Mass comes into it.    Nev

[IanR]

They are pretty big.

[danny_galaga]

23 hours ago, IanR said:

They are pretty big.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - we need a 😲 emoticon 

[Moneybox]

On 18/07/2025 at 5:50 AM, SGM said:

I'm told it was a "Crane".   These seem to be in the 4-8kg range.

Looks like it's not the first time a bird has brought down Bell 206L Longranger.  https://www.australianflying.com.au/helicopters/bird-strike-suspected-in-long-ranger-crash

I was once told landing lights "on" help birds avoid you... seems plausible.  Where I fly we have birds and roos. 

I sometimes wonder if $20 mini signal airhorn (the type used on boats) would be handy - but it would have to be mounted in a way that would be quick to activate perhaps with a pull cable for use on runway incursion or on final etc. 

 

I doubt you'd have time to activate the horn. I had what looked like a magpie avoid me while in the circuit at Jandakot. It missed the canopy by a couple of metres and went over the wing in the Harmony. I never had time to react but the bird was swerving wildly. All I saw was wings and legs and my instructor said "that was close".

[Moneybox]

The Bustard is a very big bird. We were stranded on the flooded Roper River about 50 years ago. Four of us ate one for four days and there was still a lot of meat left but with no refrigeration we decided to throw it away. I had one hit the LandCruiser windscreen in 1987 and punched it in about 130mm. We had lots of small cuts and shards of glass in the back seat of my new dual cab.

[danny_galaga]

Ordeals of a test pilot, part 37. Or how myths are born.

Today I was adjusting the trim of the lateral axis. This involves making an adjustment on the ground, taking it up and making an assessment of what needs to be adjusted next. 
As I'm climbing, at maybe 1500 feet my radio makes several screeching sounds, like a goddam eagle. A second later to my right, I see an ACTUAL eagle, talons extended ready to attack me! I veer to the left. I think we got to within 10 metres of each other. 
Of course the screeching was coincidental, but in that moment it sure did seem like the eagle had talked to me.

[onetrack]

I'm in Broome at present, and it's a planespotters paradise of course, with everything from Cessnas to big and small choppers, B737's, A320's and a range of various size turboprops between about 10 and 30 seaters, all barrelling over the main streets of town at low enough altitude to nearly see the brand marks on the tyres.

 

What surprised me is there appears to be no attempts at discouragement of birds around the airport, and there are PLENTY of them - all hanging around town, Roebuck Bay, and the airport, where all the food is, I guess.

 

The black kites are a pretty big bird, much large than even the biggest ravens. However, the ravens seem to know where to avoid aircraft, but the black kites just don't care.

The kites are constantly circling in steady glides with an occasional wing flap - and I watched a Cessna on descent roar overhead, at less than 200 feet altitude - and he passed directly over the top of two circling kites that were right in the flight path, and they never even changed their pattern.

I reckon he only missed them by about 30 or 40 feet, I guess he would've seen them, but he made no course alteration to avoid the kites.

 

I started checking up, and was surprised to find that not a single crash of an RPT due to bird strike, has been recorded in over 65 years of commercial aviation in Australia.

There have been incidents of bird strikes where aircraft have had to return and land, due to bird strike damage, but never any incident where a bird or birds has brought an RPT aircraft down. Just goes to show, that the design engineers have bird strike protection well covered.

[danny_galaga]

Interesting you mention discouragement around the airport. I thought it was pretty neat that the grass around the new runway at Brisbane is a very specific type. It's seedless. Discourages insects. Less insects means less birds 🙂

[onetrack]

Yes, that's good thinking in one respect, but grubs also live in grass, in their root systems, and plenty of birds go looking for grubs in the grass.

 

I was watching the black kites on the oval directly adjacent to the Broome runway, and was surprised to see them walking considerable distances around the oval, checking the grass, and occasionally digging a grub or two out of it. There was a gathering of about 20 kites in one group, and quite a number of individual kites walking around. The grass on the oval is very short.

 

I was quite interested in this behaviour, because I've never seen them on the ground much, they're usually spend 98% of their time just floating in big circles about 150'-200', looking for prey. They flock to any fires, knowing full well the fire is flushing out small prey.

 

Cocos-Keeling islands runway on West Island provide some amusement, as regards bird discouragement. The runway has golf fairways each side, and the islands are full of wild bantams, brought there by the Cocos Malays. The bantams are fast and good flyers, and they can fly several hundred metres at probably 50'-60' altitude. They come out of the thick vegetation each side of the runway, and go looking for insects on the golf fairways.

 

Discouragement of the bantams around the runway consists of a fast run down the runway in the airport ute, with all lights going! This makes all the bantams scatter, and fly back into the thick vegetation!

This routine is carried out directly before each takeoff, whilst the aircraft is taxiing, to reduce the risk of bantam ingestion!

 

Edited Sunday at 01:42 AM by onetrack

[BrendAn]

There are lots of bin chickens here this morning. I had go full throttle to overtake one.😁

Edited Sunday at 02:36 AM by BrendAn

[facthunter]

Got marooned on Cocos Once, with a leaking FCU on My  B727. Had to overnight, while it was fixed and engine ground run  about 5 am next Morning, with a new "O" ring flown there, at a cost of 37,000 dollars. The ONLY time I'd not taken my overnight  gear and civvies with me. (THAT proved I did not PLAN it despite the Likely Rumours). Borrowed some clothes from the Administrators Husband, gratefully accepted.  The Place is right out in the Middle of the Indian Ocean and about 15 feet AMSL.  Nev

[Ifeeltheneed]

Whilst doing circuits with my instructor on board and turning base at Coolangatta I had to change direction rather suddenly to avoid colliding with a pelican, certainly woke my instructor up as he inquired what the hell I was doing and leaving fingerprints in the dash coaming!!!! He hadn't seen it as he had his head down doing instructor stuff. Still gives me a chuckle even years down the track.

[dlegg]

Have been cruising at 8500 western Qld and flock of Pelicans going other way. Wide eyes all checking each other out!