We ended up cleared for takeoff on runway 27 at Bombay’s Santa Cruz airport. On board was a full load of Indian muslims who had been on their once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. It was a very hot working day and we were shut to the greatest takeoff gross weight of 430,000 lbs. The aircraft, a Lockheed L1011-1, had a extended takeoff roll with the three Rolls Royce RB211 engines producing most thrust.
At 1,500 ft I pushed the nose over to maximize speed so that we could commence retracting the flaps. Just then there was a significant thump from the still left facet of the plane. The main edge of the remaining wing appeared to be ordinary so we made the decision it must have been induced by a large chook ingested into the still left motor. The flight engineer noted that all engine indications were being usual, so we ongoing retracting the flaps on program and climbed to our very first assigned altitude.
Just after a discussion amid the three of us, the captain decided to carry on on to Jeddah in accordance with our flight approach. Santa Cruz airport is near to the seashore and there is an ever existing menace of bird strike from seagulls.
The initially portion of the flight was more than the Arabian Sea and it was not extensive before we shed VHF call and all communications reverted to HF until approaching the coast of Oman. Anybody who has utilized HF is aware how disheartening it can be at occasions giving placement reports and trying to comprehend controllers with unfamiliar accents.
Throughout the flight above the Arabian Sea the Rolls Royce engines ran properly with normal indications. Flying in excess of the Saudi Arabian desert we encountered moderate to significant apparent air turbulence which was uncomfortable for the travellers, several of whom ended up on their 1st flight. For the three of us, aside from the distress, there was also the problem above the still left engine which experienced ingested the bird. We identified as Jeddah on HF and tried using to get a stage change to climb out of the turbulence. Finding a level change from Jeddah for the duration of the Haj is a dropped trigger at particular situations of the working day. Of course, there is a lot of targeted traffic on all of the airways primary to Jeddah through the two months of the Haj.
As it occurred we needn’t have fearful. The engine just bounced up and down in the turbulence but keep on to run ordinarily. Approaching Jeddah we have been cleared for an ILS (instrument landing process) solution to runway 34C. Jeddah airport has a few parallel runways to manage the elevated visitors for the duration of the once-a-year Haj.
On landing I utilized bare minimum reverse thrust and braking so as roll through and exit the runway shut to the Haj Terminal which is located at the northern finish of the airfield. Just after a pretty small taxy we arrived at the apron which experienced two whole rows of plane from the Middle East, Africa, and the Far East.
Following motor shutdown engineers came aboard to focus on the suspected chicken strike. They then stripped down the remaining engine in which they discovered some feathers but, at first appearance, there was no sizeable engine problems.
A several days later the plane was flown on a two motor ferry flight to Abu Dhabi on the Persian Gulf, the place there was a servicing facility with an RB211 engine which experienced been flown out from the United Kingdom.
Hen strikes normally bring about significant engine hurt requiring an instant return to the departure airfield. It is a all over the world problem specifically at airports positioned in close proximity to the sea.
There was one celebrated case in which seagulls ended up ingested into both equally engines of an Airbus A320 shortly soon after takeoff. This incident brought about a double engine failure at low altitude and resulted in the flight crew owning to ditch the aircraft in the Hudson river in New York. Remarkable airmanship brought about a productive consequence with no decline of existence.
Our own hen strike incident out of Bombay which was not vital, turned out to be an appealing experience. It can be a quite good engine that will run typically for six hrs right after ingesting a large hen!
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