1988-08 · NASA ASRS report 93516
MLG ABORTED TKOF AFTER STRIKING NUMEROUS BIRDS.
ON TKOF ROLL AT APPROX V1 (133 KIAS) TO VR (136 KIAS) WE ENCOUNTERED A LARGE FLOCK OF BIRDS (AT LEAST 30-40 BIRDS). AT THAT TIME APPROX 4-5 BIRDS IMPACTED THE COCKPIT AREA. OUT OF A SERIOUS CONCERN FOR PROBABLE MULTIPLE BIRD INGESTION IN BOTH ENGS AND THE POSSIBILITY OF A DUAL ENG FAILURE AFTER TKOF; I EXERCISED MY CAPT'S EMER AUTHORITY AND ABORTED THE TKOF. AT THE TIME OF ABORT; THERE WAS IN EXCESS OF 4000' OF RWY REMAINING AND THE ACFT WAS STOPPED WITH APPROX 500-800' OF RWY REMAINING. THE HARLINGTON CRASH CREW WAS ON THE SCENE IMMEDIATELY. THEY INFORMED ME THAT THE BRAKES WERE HOT BUT THAT THERE WAS NO DANGER OF A FIRE. THE ACFT WAS RETURNED TO THE GATE AND THE PAX WERE DEPLANED. AT THE TIME OF THE OCCURRENCE; THERE WERE 68 PAX PLUS A CREW OF 5. THE ACFT WEIGHED 91000 LB AND WAS CONFIGURED WITH 5 DEG FLAPS. THE ABORT SPD WAS 135 KIAS. UPON CHKING THE BRAKE COOLING CHART; IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THE BRAKE TEMP/ENERGY LEVEL HAD REACHED THE CAUTION ZONE REQUIRING A 75 MIN COOLING PERIOD. HAD A MECH INSPECT THE ACFT. THERE WERE 5 BIRD STRIKES IN THE COCKPIT AREA; HOWEVER NO DAMAGE WAS SUSTAINED. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF ANY BIRD STREAKS ON THE REMAINDER OF THE AIRFRAME NOR IN THE ENGS. AFTER THE PROPER COOLING PERIOD; THE BRAKES; TIRES AND TIRE PRESSURES WERE INSPECTED. THE BRAKES HAD COOLED; THE TIRES WERE IN GOOD CONDITION AND THE TIRE PRESSURES WERE WITHIN THE NORMAL LIMITS. ACR SYSTEM OPS AND MAINT CONTROL RELEASED THE ACFT FOR FLT. FLT HRL TO IAH WAS UNEVENTFUL.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.