Bird flies into plane

I’ve always wondered if it’s possible for airplanes to “run over” birds in flight. It appears that it IS possible. Though in this case, the bird ran flies into the plane.

A Southwest Airlines jet has been fixed and returned to service after a bird strike tore a 6-inch hole in the skin of the plane and damaged part of the tail section, the carrier said Thursday.

Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz told The Associated Press that nobody was hurt and at no time was the safety of the crew or customers in jeopardy.

A large bird hit the Boeing 737 shortly after takeoff, at less than 10,000 feet, according to Mainz.

No emergency was declared, but the pilot returned to El Paso as a precaution. Passengers were booked on other flights.

The damage to the fuselage turned out to be on the underside of the jet, toward the front, according to Mainz. The other damage was a minor tear in the horizontal stabilizer on the left rear of the plane.

Bird strikes are common, but it was “extremely rare for that to occur,” to have a tear in the skin of the plane, Mainz said.

Source: MSNBC.com

They never did say what happened to the bird. I wonder, did it:

1. hit the plane and its beak got stuck, as they usually do in cartoons.
2. bounce off the side and continued flying, though slightly dazed.
3. got knocked unconcious and fell to its death.

Discovery Channel, National Geographic or Animal Planet should make a feature on this. If they already had, would you know which show/episode? I’m really fascinated by this.