Mystery Collision with Oklahoma City Thunder's Airplane

The Oklahoma City Thunder's plane landed safely after a mid-air collision that left a huge dent in the nose of the plane.

The Thunder were traveling to Chicago for their game against the Bulls on Saturday. It is believed that the plane collided with a bird during the flight, according to ABC News. Nobody on the plane was injured.

Link

Elizabeth Wolf, a spokeswoman for Delta, said she believes the plane hit a bird as the plane descended into Chicago about 12:45 a.m.

Wolf, in an email, said no one was hurt and the plane landed without incident. She also said maintenance workers will continue to investigate exactly what happened.

Link

Not a lot to go on with this story at the moment. Every article is small and almost devoid of any information other than "we're investigating it".

My question is, could a bird damage the nose of an airplane like that? Pterosaur? Thunderbird? Gremlins?

a reply to: underwerks

That's actually really minor compared to some bird strikes I've seen. The radome, which is what was damaged, is fiberglass to allow the weather radar to see through it. It's pretty easily damaged by anything from birds to hail.

Bird strikes over the years.

No blood, no feathers interesting....

Hint: It happened when the lane was landing...

I'm guessing a drone or a bird strike. But, A bird strike would have left blood and feathers. A drone collision would have left scratches plus some embedded debris. Whatever it was, it was softer than the carbon-fibre radar radome.

a reply to: stormcell

a reply to: olaru12

It's not carbon fiber, it's usually fiberglass.

There have been many over the years that didn't leave blood or feathers after impact. It all depends on the type of bird and how it hit. It could also have been hail, but that's less likely judging by the lack of other damage.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: underwerks

That's actually really minor compared to some bird strikes I've seen. The radome, which is what was damaged, is fiberglass to allow the weather radar to see through it. It's pretty easily damaged by anything from birds to hail.

Bird strikes over the years.

There's one picture on that link that almost matches it perfectly, so it could just be a bird strike. But why no blood?

Good report here regarding this collision and a very similar one involving a Chinese passenger jet a few years back.

a reply to: underwerks

Highest flying birds in the world, interestingly none of the top few are native to the U.S:

themysteriousworld.com...

Rüppell's vulture, 37,000 feet

a reply to: underwerks

It happens sometimes. The bird glances off the radome, and is pushed clear with the blood going off to the side, or they fly through some weather that washes the blood off.

originally posted by: olaru12
No blood, no feathers interesting....

Wouldn't be too hard to believe that if there were any feathers that they would have blown off, right?

We need to know the aircraft elevation at time of impact to know if a bird strike is even possible. (Now I see above image states 30,000 feet HAHA! Whoever claimed this was a bird at the airline or FAA is a moron)

This happened to a Chinese passenger jet at 20,000 feet and they tried to claim it was a bird strike. Also no blood or bird remains on that aircraft. Plus birds can't fly that high.
Chinese plane impact with unknown object at 20,000 plus feet:



Bird strikes make a big bloody mess:

a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Plus birds can't fly that high.

They can, see above

a reply to: Blueracer

There are feathers left after a bird strike more often than you would think, in many cases its the first tip off that your day just got worse.

ETA: Pulled a goose out of the external tank on a b-52 one time that was interesting, that plane landed with 22 confirmed strikes.

originally posted by: Zcustosmorum
a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Plus birds can't fly that high.

They can, see above

I see that what a shock, But I doubt many of those birds were in Chicago that day

Even the birds that can fly very high likely don't always fly that high except rarely.

a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Most bird strikes leave a bloody mess, not all of them.

a reply to: Irishhaf

The messy ones were always easier to deal with. The not messy ones usually got the bird impounded a few days trying to figure out what the hell they hit.

As the only birds that can fly at 30000 ft are not found in the USA, please can we put to rest the possibility that the dent was caused by impact with a bird?

A commercial drone would not be able to fly at that altitude. The record for such a drone in 2016 was only 11000 ft (see here). There may be military drones that can fly at 30000 ft. But the military would surely not fly one amidst commercial jet flight paths.

Therefore, what caused this remains a mystery.

a reply to: micpsi

No, because we don't know that it was at 30,000 feet. The plane was flying at 30,000 feet during its flight, that doesn't mean the impact occurred there. They won't know where it happened until the interview the crew.

a reply to: underwerks

Obviously it was a basketball. It was a basketball team, yes?

C'mon people! Let's put 2 and 2 together.

ufo strike
an identical one happened in china in 2014