Horizon Air Plane Hits Flock of Birds on Approach to Eugene Causing Damage [VIDEO]
Airnation.net Newswire
A Horizon Air regional plane suffered a bird strike on approach to Eugene Airport in Oregon on Monday causing significant damage under the front windshield.
Horizon Air Flight 2299, a de Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft, struck 3 swans at about 200 feet in the air in very foggy conditions’, according to the airline.
Pilots landed the plane safely and there were no injuries reported but passenger Mark Mathis said it was a bit hairy after the strike.
‘”Then one motor is making some like high and low pitched sounds just revving up and then down,” Mathis told KVAL News. “Then we were like, um, OK.”
“Just praying,” he said. “Hey, the pilot knows what he’s doing. OK God, give him wisdom, if there’s something going on, to deal with it.”
After a safe but bumpy landing, Mathis walked to the front of the plane to see the damage.
He saw “a hole right into where the wiring is in the nose.”KVAL News talked to Horizon’s chief of pilots, who wouldn’t make the comparison to 2009’s Miracle on the Hudson when a plane hit birds and the pilot safely landed a plane full of passengers on the Hudson River in New York City.
But he said the crew did a great job dealing with the in-flight collision in thick fog.’
There were 11 bird strikes reported at Eugene last year.
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