11:41 am - Tuesday
Bird-strike for Delta Airlines airplane in the USA
Phoenix, USA - Causing a hole right above the cockpit's windshield
(WAPA) - The pilot of a Delta Airlines' McDonnell Douglas MD-90/30 aircraft was forced yesterday to invert the route and land back in Phoenix, from where he had departed a few minutes earlier for flight DL1232 to Salt Lake City with 127 passengers and 5 crewmembers on board, due to a mid-air collision with a flock of birds.
Right after the impact the crew noted a lack of pressure in cabin and decided to call for emergency, requesting a priority landing at the departure airport. Nobody was injured, even if many people suffered for panic attacks remembering last January's sea-landing in the Hudson river in New York (see AVIONEWS).
Once on the ground it has been possible to assess the damage: the impact with one or more birds caused the opening of a hole about the size of a dinner plate right above the cockpit's windshield. Another demonstration of how seriously the bird-strike problem should be considered worldwide. (Avionews)
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Direttore Clara Moschini