Eurofighter Typhoon Canopy-Shattering Bird Strike Captured In Amazing Images
This particular strike happened at the Aire 25 air show in Spain last month. Javier Alonso de Medina Salguero was at the base of the spotter area, photographing the Spanish Eagle Patrol Eurofighter demonstration team, when he fired off a multi-shot sequence. He's only recently posted them due to his hectic schedule.
The first shot shows what Salguero, whose work can be found on the air_spotter7200 Instagram account, told us was a Lesser Blacked-Backed gull flying in the path of the jet.
The second shot shows the immediate aftermath of the gull impacting the right side of the Eurofighter's canopy and shattering into a shower of feathers and bone.
The third shot shows what appears to be a piece of the canopy falling away and a trail of blood, guts and feathers.
The fourth shot is a close-up of the broken forward canopy glazing.
Though photographing aviation for years, this was the first time Salguero ever saw a plane being struck by a bird.
'I was quite surprised,' about the incident and the quality of the images, said Salguero, who was using a Nikon 200mm-500mm lens at the time. 'We were watching the exhibition of the Eurofighter when we saw that [it] left without finishing the exhibition. They reported by radio that he had hit a seagull and had broken the dome. Just at that moment I saw the photos I had and I saw the entire sequence.'
The Eurofighter was from the 11th Wing based in Morón, according to the Spanish Infodefensa news outlet. The event was being held to mark the 40th anniversary of the Eagle Patrol and was attended by Spanish King Felipe VI. The collision happened as the Eurofighter performed aerobatic maneuvers. You can see those, and the fleeting moment of impact in the following video, which shows far less detail of the strike.
After the collision, the Eurofighter left the air show and headed to the nearby San Javier Air Base. A team of specialists from the Spanish Air Force repair unit headed to the base to assess the damage, the publication noted.
While the pilot managed to survive, hundreds of people have died from crashes caused by bird strikes, while others have had to be rescued. One of the most famous of those incidents took place Jan. 15, 2009, when U.S. Airways Flight 1549 landed safely in the Hudson River after hitting a flock of geese. It made a hero of pilot Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger.
As we noted in the past, high-performance fighter jets are particularly susceptible to problems when encountering birds.
These strikes are especially dangerous for single-engine jets, which could lose all power while also suffering serious damage if they ingest a bird. This can happen to twin-engined fighters too, with multiple birds, but there is less margin for single-engine aircraft. The lower to the ground this happens, the less time there is to react and work the problem.
Considering the speeds that these aircraft fly and how busy their pilots are in the cockpit, sometimes birds aren't even spotted before impact or cannot be avoided, as seen in the video below.
In fact, even if the bird doesn't take down the jet, the pilot's reaction to the strike could.
An amazing example of this is the photo seen below, taken by aviation photographer, air traffic controller, and veteran AWACS crewman, Louis DePaemelaere (check out his site here), at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado.
The picture shows one of the 120th Fighter Squadron F-16Cs blasting out of Buckley and right into a small gathering of birds, one of which had a dramatic collision with the Viper's ALQ-131 electronic countermeasures pod mounted on its centerline station. A bit higher and the result of such a collision could have been far more severe.
Bird strikes are of great concern to the military. Between 2007 and 2016, the Air Force and Navy reported an average of about 5,600 bird strikes per year, causing a total of nearly $400 million in damage over that period, according to the Pentagon's Bird/Wildlife Aircraft Hazard (BASH) prevention program.
'Because pilots and crews use the same low-altitude airspace as large concentrations of birds, the prevention of bird strikes is of serious concern to the military,' BASH noted.
'The primary BASH programs are implemented at the installation level and operated currently by Air Force and Navy,' BASH explained. 'These programs include unique installation-level BASH teams comprised of military and civilian personnel from air operations, aviation safety, and natural resources that work together to reduce BASH risk.'
The Eurofighter pilot was lucky. So too was Salguero. Though he only recently posted the images, they have received a lot of praise.
'I didn't expect that my photos would reach so many people,' he said, offering a simple explanation for why it took so long for them to emerge.
'I should have published them before,' he explained. 'But I haven't had much time.'
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The 185-Year-Old French Trick Is the Only Way I'm Drinking Coffee This Summer
Iced coffee is a 100% necessity for me as the temperature starts to climb. I'm a big coffee drinker, and I simply cannot abide a hot drink on a hot day. (No, thank you.) I would love a fancy cold brew from my local coffee shop every day, but that gets expensive real quick, so I make my iced coffee at home. We have a lovely little cold brew contraption and nice beans, and the coffee comes out great, but sometimes I can't help but want to zhuzh it up a bit. I've dabbled in making flavored syrups at home to fancy up my iced coffees, and sometimes I'll get a flavored creamer, but for the longest time that's where the innovation stopped. How many ways are there to dress up iced coffee anyway? Well, as I was delighted to find, at least one more. I recently came across the perfect mix-in for iced coffee that delivers a flavorful — and different — summer sipper: lemonade. What Is Mazagran Coffee? Iced coffee with lemonade is called 'Mazagran coffee,' and its creation is credited to French troops defending the Mazagran fort in Algeria in 1840. To stretch their supplies, they began watering their coffee down with sweetened cold water, and the first iced coffee was born. Over time the new drink made its way to other European countries, and sweetened lemon juice replaced the water to create a new citrus-spiked coffee drink. Why Lemonade Is the Perfect Addition to Iced Coffee Lemonade is a surprisingly perfect addition to iced coffee, the two — seemingly conflicting — flavors really blend seamlessly into one another to make a drink that is more than the sum of its parts. It's the brightest iced coffee I've ever tasted, lightly sweet with a citrusy background flavor. It's even more drinkable and refreshing than a regular iced coffee, and I say that as a bona fide iced coffee addict. I know, it sounds like it shouldn't work. Coffee is bitter, lemons are bitter. Coffee and citrus are not two flavors that generally go well together, but I'm here to tell you that they complement each other extremely well. So well in fact, that people have been adding lemonade to coffee for almost 200 years. How to Make Lemonade Iced Coffee There are two ways to make this drink, depending on what you have on hand. You can make it the easy way, by mixing equal parts iced coffee or cold brew and lemonade, or you can get a little fancier and mix up your own coffee-lemon syrup. Chill the glass. Fill a tall glass halfway with ice. Make the syrup. Add equal parts espresso or cold brew concentrate and lemon juice to the glass. The exact amount depends on how strong you want your coffee to be, but 2 to 3 tablespoons each is a good place to start in a 16-ounce glass. Remember, you can always add, but you can't take away, so it's best to start with less and add more after tasting. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of sugar or simple syrup. Mix. Fill the glass with cold water and stir until well-combined. Garnish with a lemon slice, if you're feeling posh. Tips for Making Lemonade Iced Coffee Add a pinch of salt. A little salt can really punch up the flavor. Add it in when you make the coffee-lemonade syrup, or just stir in a pinch at the end. Skip the creamer. This drink is best without the addition of creaminess. Save dairy and other creamy ingredients for your typical coffee drink. This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it there: The 185-Year-Old French Trick Is the Only Way I'm Drinking Coffee This Summer Further Reading We Used Our New 'Room Plan' Tool to Give This Living Room 3 Distinct Styles — See How, Then Try It Yourself The Design Changemakers to Know in 2025 Create Your Own 3D Room Plan with Our New Tool
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Southwest flight from Burbank drops hundreds of feet to avoid possible collision
A Southwest flight climbing away from Burbank Airport suddenly descended hundreds of feet Friday afternoon, possibly to avoid a mid-air collision. The plane was at 14,100 feet above Angeles National Forest headed northeast to Las Vegas at 12:03 p.m. when it abruptly dropped to 13,625 feet, data from Flightradar24 showed. The drop of around 500 feet came moments after the plane had been gaining altitude steadily since takeoff, causing tense moments on the plane. Passengers said on social media that they were startled by the move. Steve Ulasewicz, 33, was on the plane. The Woodland Hills resident felt a sudden drop around eight minutes into the flight, and thought it might be bad turbulence. After a two- or three-second pause, the plane went into "free fall for about eight to 10 seconds," he said. "People were screaming. I felt my body come up and out of the chair." In a lifetime of flying, he had never felt anything like it. 'I thought that was it — I thought we were all dead,' he said. 'I don't want to die,' Ulasewicz told his friend sitting nearby during the fall. After the plane leveled out, passengers were confused. Ulasewicz wondered if there was a bird strike or mechanical issue. He waited the "longest two to three minutes of [his] life" before the pilot came on the intercom to announce the near collision, he said. He saw a female attendant with an ice pack on her head. Unlike the passengers, she was not buckled in during the ascent as she prepared to serve beverages. After the terror of the incident, Ulasewicz said the revelation that his plane was involved in a near miss changed his emotions to anger. He listed off a number of similar incidents in U.S. skies in recent months. The commercial flight had to climb and descend to comply with two onboard traffic alerts, Southwest spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said in a statement to The Times. "The flight continued to Las Vegas, where it landed uneventfully," the statement said. "Southwest is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to further understand the circumstances." "No injuries were immediately reported by Customers, but two Flight Attendants are being treated for injuries," Lunsford said. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the incident in a written statement. A jet was headed southwest to Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu and was at a similar altitude — 14,525 feet — when the Southwest flight dropped, per Flightradar24. The planes were around five miles apart and within 400 vertical feet of one another, headed in opposite directions, when the Southwest flight took evasive action, flight data on the website showed. A Times analysis of the flight data estimated that the aircraft could have collided within 20 seconds of the diversion if the planes had each held course. The military craft was descending from above as the commercial flight ascended from below, making a collision over the mountains northeast of Santa Clarita possible. The jet stopped its own steady descent and maintained its height for several minutes after the incident. It was unclear whether the jet belonged to the military, as its listed owner was a corporation in Delaware. The naval base did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The plane landed in Las Vegas at 12:39 p.m. Friday. There has been growing focus on aviation safety in recent months. A series of radar outages at Newark Liberty International Airport brought massive flight delays in May. Federal officials continue to investigate the January collision in Washington between a commercial jet and a military helicopter that killed 67 people. In San Diego, a private jet crashed, killing all six on board, in June. A federal investigation found the aircraft was flying too low before it hit power lines and slammed into a house. The automated system that provides weather conditions and runway lights weren't operating at the airport before the plane crashed, the report confirmed. This is a developing story and will be updated. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Southwest flight from Burbank drops hundreds of feet to avoid possible collision
A Southwest flight climbing away from Burbank Airport suddenly descended hundreds of feet Friday afternoon, possibly to avoid a mid-air collision. The plane was at 14,100 feet above Angeles National Forest headed northeast to Las Vegas at 12:03 p.m. when it abruptly dropped to 13,625 feet, data from Flightradar24 showed. The drop of around 500 feet came moments after the plane had been gaining altitude steadily since takeoff, causing tense moments on the plane. Passengers said on social media that they were startled by the move. Steve Ulasewicz, 33, was on the plane. The Woodland Hills resident felt a sudden drop around eight minutes into the flight, and thought it might be bad turbulence. After a two- or three-second pause, the plane went into "free fall for about eight to 10 seconds," he said. "People were screaming. I felt my body come up and out of the chair." In a lifetime of flying, he had never felt anything like it. 'I thought that was it — I thought we were all dead,' he said. 'I don't want to die,' Ulasewicz told his friend sitting nearby during the fall. After the plane leveled out, passengers were confused. Ulasewicz wondered if there was a bird strike or mechanical issue. He waited the "longest two to three minutes of [his] life" before the pilot came on the intercom to announce the near collision, he said. He saw a female attendant with an ice pack on her head. Unlike the passengers, she was not buckled in during the ascent as she prepared to serve beverages. After the terror of the incident, Ulasewicz said the revelation that his plane was involved in a near miss changed his emotions to anger. He listed off a number of similar incidents in U.S. skies in recent months. The commercial flight had to climb and descend to comply with two onboard traffic alerts, Southwest spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said in a statement to The Times. "The flight continued to Las Vegas, where it landed uneventfully," the statement said. "Southwest is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to further understand the circumstances." "No injuries were immediately reported by Customers, but two Flight Attendants are being treated for injuries," Lunsford said. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the incident in a written statement. A jet was headed southwest to Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu and was at a similar altitude — 14,525 feet — when the Southwest flight dropped, per Flightradar24. The planes were around five miles apart and within 400 vertical feet of one another, headed in opposite directions, when the Southwest flight took evasive action, flight data on the website showed. A Times analysis of the flight data estimated that the aircraft could have collided within 20 seconds of the diversion if the planes had each held course. The military craft was descending from above as the commercial flight ascended from below, making a collision over the mountains northeast of Santa Clarita possible. The jet stopped its own steady descent and maintained its height for several minutes after the incident. It was unclear whether the jet belonged to the military, as its listed owner was a corporation in Delaware. The naval base did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The plane landed in Las Vegas at 12:39 p.m. Friday. There has been growing focus on aviation safety in recent months. A series of radar outages at Newark Liberty International Airport brought massive flight delays in May. Federal officials continue to investigate the January collision in Washington between a commercial jet and a military helicopter that killed 67 people. In San Diego, a private jet crashed, killing all six on board, in June. A federal investigation found the aircraft was flying too low before it hit power lines and slammed into a house. The automated system that provides weather conditions and runway lights weren't operating at the airport before the plane crashed, the report confirmed. This is a developing story and will be updated. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
