OV9

Was meant to be arriving at my dad's with the kids and wife in tow just about now. But about 10 minutes into a quite bumpy flight out of Gatwick the pilot came on the intercom and, cool as a cucumber, announced that "wouldn't you know it there was a bird flying in the clouds we were coming through and it hit and cracked the windscreen, so as a precaution we're going back to Gatwick". Twenty minutes after that we were back on the tarmac with the rescue vehicles lining the runway. Completely and utterly undramatic.

As frustrating as it was, nothing happened (to anyone but the bird) and after a bit of airport chaos we decided to go home as with the best will in the world we'd end up with even more knackered children and barely 24 hours with my dad. Refund already being processed.

It was my daughter's first flight too, so she has had a few laps of Gatwick and an emergency landing as a first experience. Fingers crossed the flights to/from Thailand in a few weeks to to plan.

So, I'm now sleeping in my own bed tonight.

Jesus Gods we’re smiling on you DJ

My first ever time in a plane (flying to England for my interview) we had to turn back about 10 mins in but for a far less critical mechanical issue - took off in daylight, would be landing in the dark and there was an issue with the lights.

Hope the kids aren’t impacted by this and you get to see your Dad soon…

Cheers. Middle one is most upset, and they're all knackered.

We're looking at rebooking in November instead.

Must have been some bird, as I presume the screens are designed to take a bird impact.

Glad that everyone was safe and no real danger, although a lot of running around for you.

The pilot may have been cool as a cucumber on the intercom, but I would have loved to see his reaction when a bird hit the screen at 500mph. Large flies/bees hitting a car screen can make me jump at 80mph, so fuck knows what the sound of a bird impact was like!

duncs500 wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:07 am Must have been some bird, as I presume the screens are designed to take a bird impact.

Must have been a fully laden swallow.

Sounds nice

I was on a plane once where a bird hit the nose and disabled the radar - on the same plane one of the tyres had burst all when taking off from orlando to mexico. The crew went white when we started circling dumping all the fuel theyd just taken on. Good job for free booze as my mate and I were too slaughtered to notice this near death landing. Eventually made it there - took 3 days in all from setting off but lived to tell the story.

Will be a cool story to tell their friends at least

Dave!

Aeroglas repair, Aeroglas replace. But they are never there with their glue-gun when you need them

Glad you landed safely - even an aborted landing can get people really nervous. Where is @IanF for some proper insights?

Gavster wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:13 am The pilot may have been cool as a cucumber on the intercom, but I would have loved to see his reaction when a bird hit the screen at 500mph.

Not unless the bird was flying at 30 000 ft. Probably more like 350, but still.....

Different root cause of course, but I expect all pilots are keen that they don't experience this kinda shizzles - you may remember this one?

mik wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:50 am

Gavster wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:13 am The pilot may have been cool as a cucumber on the intercom, but I would have loved to see his reaction when a bird hit the screen at 500mph.

Not unless the bird was flying at 30 000 ft. Probably more like 350, but still.....

#nerdalert

mik wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:50 am

Gavster wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:13 am The pilot may have been cool as a cucumber on the intercom, but I would have loved to see his reaction when a bird hit the screen at 500mph.

Not unless the bird was flying at 30 000 ft. Probably more like 350, but still.....

Depends on the combined speed based on the bird’s direction of travel. I’m sure we could work it out by using the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.

Taking off from Gatwick are we to assume it was a European swallow ?

Lining the runway with emergency vehicles seems a bit overkill for a cracked screen, unless they were concerned about more damage elsewhere they weren’t telling you about…

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:46 am Taking off from Gatwick are we to assume it was a European swallow ?

It’s unlikely to be an African at this time of year

I don't know what the standard operating procedure is, but perhaps "lining" was too strong a word. They were definitely there and waiting though.

Glad everyone is okay DJ. Managing to hit a bird must’ve involved some seriously skilful flying!

Windscreens are triple layer and can actually take maximum pressure differential with just one layer remaining, but I wouldn’t wish to judge another pilots actions as I wasn’t there.

There are two levels of emergency response, Mayday being the highest, but slightly lower is Pan which gives you priority assistance from air traffic control and ground services. If either are called then it is SOP for the emergency services to attend.

I was up over northern Canada a few years back and my windscreen cracked.. it made a hell of a noise and is quite startling plus then getting an ECAM warning was concerning. Thankfully the other layer held so I continued to LA as anywhere nearby was too bloody cold and we would have been stuck there for a couple of days whilst they transported up a replacement.

"Cancel Mayday, too cold"

IanF wrote: Sat Oct 01, 2022 3:29 pm I was up over northern Canada a few years back and my windscreen cracked.. it made a hell of a noise and is quite startling plus then getting an ECAM warning was concerning.

Mik: Over Canada?
IanF: No. I don’t think I’ll ever get over Canada…..

WTF is ECAM for non Roger Roger, what’s your vector Victor types….

Mildly frightening experience. Fortunately never had anything as bad. we did once have a failed pressurisation system when coming back from Orlando, so the operator diverted to their hub (Indianapolis) and swapped us to another aircraft, the flight as it had to be kept at under 10,000 feet took an age as the speed was limited and the change of aircraft too about 2 hours. Definitely the best option to bin it off.

My friend at work did have a go around at Heathrow a few years back where another plane stopped on the runway after landing because they didn't know when exit to take. Apparently not uncommon but pretty frightening.