EMB-170 flight crew reported a bird strike ingestion into engine during takeoff. Crew returned to departure airport.
Synopsis
EMB-170 flight crew reported a bird strike ingestion into engine during takeoff. Crew returned to departure airport.
Narrative
On departure a diving seagull at approximately 300-400 ft AGL struck the RVSM critical area and was after pulled into eng 1. High engine vibrations were observed post strike. High engine vibration QRH was run while in a box holding issued by ATC. The decision was made to return to the field with priority handling requested. Upon returning to the gate damage was found to 2 Eng 1 fan blades. During the operation the decision was made by me FO (First Officer) / pilot flying and agreed upon by the Captain that a small level of airspeed loss (not in excess of 5-10 kts.) during turns was acceptable to reduce strain on Eng 1 from increased TLA (Throttle Lever Angle). The aircraft landed normally with auto throttles disengaged and returned to an assigned gate where port authority was waiting to inspect the damage and take samples.
Second reporter narrative
We were departing Runway XX at ZZZ. The FO (First Officer) was PF. After I put the gear up I looked out the windshield and saw a seagull in front of us. I saw it dive and I thought it would go under us but I heard a loud bang and then a loud grinding-type noise coming from the left side. While continuing my PM duties cleaning up the aircraft I looked at the EICAS and saw the LP vibration increasing for Eng 1. I reported the birdstrike to the Tower when they switched us to Departure. After completing the after takeoff checklist I started on the engine abnormal vibration checklist. We leveled at 5000. The vibration hit 4.0 during the climb but dropped into the 3ish range when we throttled back after leveling off. The loud noise continued throughout the rest of the flight. We disconnected the autothrottles as per the checklist. Seeing that the engine could just barely stay in the green range for LP (low pressure) vibration while maintaining altitude at 5000 ft but would go back into the yellow if we added power to climb I decided to return to ZZZ. While following the checklist; coordinating with ATC; and monitoring the aircraft flight path I got a little mixed up and ended up following the part of the checklist that said to use the engine out descent and landing checklists when I shouldn't have. I should have ended the procedure after determining sufficient thrust was available to make a two engine landing. However this didn't end up changing anything except the landing speeds being calculated slightly differently and we made sure we had the required landing distance so I do not think this affected safety in any way. I made sure we took our time and completed all checklists before requesting an approach at ZZZ. ZZZ was landing XXL and XXR and initially ATC assigned us a visual to XXL. We had already programmed the ILS XXR and I didn't want to switch last minute because XXL is shorter and the approach is slightly weird because it's offset. I asked ATC if we could have XXR and they asked if we were requesting priority handling. I said yes to make sure we would get XXR. We landed safely. After landing we found multiple bent fanblades and blood on the engine.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.