Breaking News

[Darkstar]

Breaking News
Minutes ago, a US Airforce training plane leaving Laughlin Airforce Base, crashed in a field one mile west of the weather radome on US Highway 90. The identity of the pilot and co-pilot are not known, nor their condition. Numerous ambulances and emergency vehicles have been dispatched to the scene of the crash. It is unlikely details or eyewitness accounts will be available before they are screened by appropriate authorities. More on this later.

From what I have heard the Student Pilot as well as the Instructor Pilot both ejected. 1 Pilot was sent to San Antonio while the other is back at Laughlin.

www.DelRioLive.com

[Tarotreader]

From what I have heard the Student Pilot as well as the Instructor Pilot both ejected. 1 Pilot was sent to San Antonio while the other is back at Laughlin.

www.DelRioLive.com (http://www.DelRioLive.com)

I heard they were both safe. But I haven't heard details beyond that. I could sure hear the sirens when it happened though! It sounded like the world was about to end or something.

[Darkstar]

A T-38C “Talon” jet crashed five miles east of Brackettville Tuesday afternoon, resulting in significant injuries to an instructor pilot and lesser injuries to the student pilot. Instructor and student were flying together on a low-level training mission, a routine sortie from Laughlin Air Force Base, when the apparent accident occurred.

About 3:45 p.m., the jet trainer apparently sustained a bird strike, a collision with a bird of unknown size or species at press time. The strike may have affected the high-performance jet engines, not an uncommon occurrence, though usually with less damaging consequences.

http://www.delrionewsherald.com/story.lasso?ewcd=709c9368471667c1

http://www.delrionewsherald.com/photos/2005.December/12-14crash.jpg
Del Rio News-Herald Photo
www.DelRioNewsherald.com

[Tarotreader]

http://www.delrionewsherald.com/story.lasso?ewcd=709c9368471667c1

http://www.delrionewsherald.com/photos/2005.December/12-14crash.jpg
Del Rio News-Herald Photo
www.DelRioNewsherald.com (http://www.DelRioNewsherald.com)

It's so funny the way the paper wrote that, "a collision with a bird of unknown size or species at press time". It was like, "Well, no one knows just what kind of bird it was but we'll report it as soon as they finish scraping it off the jet and run some tests on the remains. Search crews are already on the scene with highly trained dogs looking for the mysterious bird's remains." Of course, I'm not a pilot so maybe this is crucial data, but if they run a follow up to announce just what kind of bird it was I'm going to LMAO.

[Darkstar]

From my understanding this is a common threat for high performance jet engines. Yet a bird would of caused damage but not to the point that it would knock the airplane off the air causing it to crash.

Perhaps it was a vulture instead of a little bird. I am sure this is very important information as to knowing what species of bird hit the $3.8 Million Jet causing it to crash and injuring an instructor pilot. After all the "Bird" was the reason it crashed.

[Tarotreader]

From my understanding this is a common threat for high performance jet engines. Yet a bird would of caused damage but not to the point that it would knock the airplane off the air causing it to crash.

Perhaps it was a vulture instead of a little bird. I am sure this is very important information as to knowing what species of bird hit the $3.8 Million Jet causing it to crash and injuring an instructor pilot. After all the "Bird" was the reason it crashed.

I'm sure you're right, I still think it was an inane way to word that bit of the story though.

[chrishdz]

[quote=Darkstar]From my understanding this is a common threat for high performance jet engines. Yet a bird would of caused damage but not to the point that it would knock the airplane off the air causing it to crash. [quote]

As an Air Force aircraft mechanic, I can tell you that it is a very common threat, there is an agency at every air force base who are in charge of keeping the airfield area free of birds at all times, and even a small bird, maybe not a sparrow or something similar, but maybe a small burrowing owl or whatever similarly sized birds are in the local area, maybe even a crow, will cause extensive damage to any aircraft engine, unless it is a turbo prop-type engine, and a lot of bird strikes to the engines in fighter/trainer aircraft will bring it down, especially F-16s, haven't heard this happening on T-37s or 38s, but I'm sure it's happened before, and it is not as likely for a bird strike to bring down a larger aircraft, such as a commercial carrier, unless a flock of large birds hit the engines.

[Tarotreader]

As an Air Force aircraft mechanic, I can tell you that it is a very common threat, there is an agency at every air force base who are in charge of keeping the airfield area free of birds at all times, and even a small bird, maybe not a sparrow or something similar, but maybe a small burrowing owl or whatever similarly sized birds are in the local area, maybe even a crow, will cause extensive damage to any aircraft engine, unless it is a turbo prop-type engine, and a lot of bird strikes to the engines in fighter/trainer aircraft will bring it down, especially F-16s, haven't heard this happening on T-37s or 38s, but I'm sure it's happened before, and it is not as likely for a bird strike to bring down a larger aircraft, such as a commercial carrier, unless a flock of large birds hit the engines.

Kewl, expert info!