Fowl Strike Brought on T-38 Crash, Investigators Say

A big chicken struck the cover of a T-38 and despatched particles flying into the coach jets’ engines, forcing the pilot to eject and the plane to crash final November, in keeping with a new Air Drive accident investigation report. 

The mishap, which resulted within the full destruction of the T-38, was unavoidable and the only real reason for the loss, investigators stated.

The July 26 launch of the accident report comes greater than eight months after the Nov. 7 incident close to Columbus Air Drive Base, Miss. Eleven days later, one other T-38 skilled an in-flight emergency, forcing the pilot to execute a “wheels-up” touchdown. 

The Air Drive has but to launch a report on the second incident. 

In keeping with the Accident Investigation Board, the Nov. 7 incident got here throughout a routine teacher continuation coaching sortie, wherein two T-38s flew with no scholar pilots aboard. 

Planners acknowledged elevated threat within the mission, provided that it was the pilots’ second flight that day, they’d fly decrease to the bottom, and there was a average threat of chicken strikes, in keeping with the report.  

Nevertheless, investigators famous that Columbus is “typically at chicken watch situation average” and that mitigation measures have been mentioned through the preflight briefing. In addition they said that “it isn’t unusual for an teacher to fly twice in sooner or later.” 

Inside 5 minutes of takeoff, because the planes have been maneuvering right into a line abreast formation at roughly 3,000 ft, one aircraft struck a “massive chicken,” the report states. 

“The entrance cover was principally open,” the pilot advised investigators. “To me it seemed prefer it was simply, most of it was gone.” 

The jet’s flight information recorder confirmed the left engine dropping to zero revolutions per minute with an increase in exhaust gasoline temperature, indicative of a seizure. The appropriate engine, in the meantime, was capable of maintain going at decreased energy, indicating a compressor stall “when the engine doesn’t have a correct distribution of airflow; the engine remains to be turning however may have a lack of thrust and subsequently isn’t as efficient as wanted to maintain flight,” investigators said. 

The pilot shortly recognized the incident as a chicken strike and advised the opposite T-38’s pilot they wanted to make an emergency touchdown at a close-by airport. Inside 90 seconds, nevertheless, the fitting engine began to fail because it exceeded temperature limits and failed to supply sufficient thrust. The pilot tried to get well the engine for twenty-four seconds, then punched out at 680 ft above floor degree. By then, two minutes had handed because the chicken strike. 

The plane crashed some 20 miles away from Columbus, fully destroyed, a loss valued at $8.5 million. The pilot suffered minor accidents from the chicken strike and was medically cleared inside 24 hours. 

Investigators on the crash scene recovered components of the T-38 cover, closely broken and with small quantities of chicken stays on it. They inspected the engines and found closely broken compressor blades in each, with “white granular materials” in one which was per the acrylic cover. No chicken stays have been present in both engine. 

The report’s conclusion states that the pilot “couldn’t have averted the chicken” and acted as an skilled pilot ought to in an emergency. The report additionally concluded that “the Columbus AFB Fowl Plane Strike Hazard Program and its execution by the tower, operations supervision, and pilots have been passable.”