First Officer reported a bird strike during approach. The flight crew continued to landing. After landing; major damage was discovered to the First Officer's pitot probe and surrounding fuselage skin and structure.
Synopsis
First Officer reported a bird strike during approach. The flight crew continued to landing. After landing; major damage was discovered to the First Officer's pitot probe and surrounding fuselage skin and structure.
Narrative
On or about Day 0 at around XA00 we were making an approach into ZZZ airport. We received a vector off the approach with a decent down to 4;000 feet. As we were making our descent into the airfield a loud bang was heard over by the First Officers right side. It was very loud and jarring to both pilots. Shortly after hearing the sound the First Officers instruments went to a very erratic state. The airspeed and altitude made multiple erratic movement with activation of the stick shaker during the approach on final. The Captains instruments remained accurate and matched the standby instrument in the center console. We would later find major damage to the pitot tube for the First Officer accompanied with physical damage to the skin. The Captain started the checklist followed by [requesting priority handling]. The Captain also made a call to the back to keep the flight attendants informed of the status of passengers as many had heard multiple impacts on the wing and engine nacelle. The aircraft was controllable so the Captain decided we should continue the approach and land. We were able to land the aircraft without any further incident and had airport response follow the aircraft to the Gate. Normally the highest bird activity is during sunrise and sunset. Also birds normally are found at much lower altitudes. As we were making the arrival to the airport it may be better to slow the aircraft further. However at the time of the incident it was very dark so I highly doubt the impact could be avoided. A slower speed may have lessened the damage. A BASH (Bird/Wildlife Air Strike Hazard) program may also be effective around the airport if they don't already have one.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.